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Bklilll 


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Division 
Section 


THE  MESSIAH  IN  THE  PSALMS 


THE 


MESSIAH  IN  THE  PSALMS 


HENRY  MELVILLE  KING 

Tastor  of  the  First  "Baptist  Church,  Tr evidence,  %  I 


V 


Philadelphia 

Bmcrtcan  baptist  publication  Society 

1420  Chestnut  Street 


Copyright  1899  by 
Henry  Melville  King 


jfrom  tbe  ipress  of  tbe 
Hmcrican  baptist  lpublication  Society 


Uo  flil£  mite 


PREFACE 


The  Psalms  are  used  largely  for  devotional  pur- 
poses. As  expressions  of  penitence  and  depend- 
ence, of  faith  in  God  and  thanksgiving  for  mercies 
received,  of  humility  and  devout  aspiration,  they 
will  never  be  superseded.  They  voice  the  deepest 
sentiments  and  record  the  richest  experiences  of 
devout  souls  of  all  times.  So  long  as  human  nature 
remains  what  it  is,  the  Psalms  of  David  and  his 
companion  poets  will  hold  a  permanent  place  in 
the  devotional  literature  of  the  spiritual  Israel. 

Mrs.  Charles  has  beautifully  said,  "Beginning 
often  in  the  tumultuous  depths,  these  Psalms  soar 
into  the  calm  light  of  heaven.  An  inspired  liturgy 
for  all  time,  and  the  prophetic  utterance  of  a  sor- 
row which  knew  no  equal,  they  are  yet  the  natural 
expression  of  the  struggles  and  hopes,  the  repent- 
ings  and  thanksgivings  of  the  human  hearts  who 
first  spoke  them." 

These  words  affirm  that  David  was  more  than 
"the  sweet  singer  of  Israel,"  and  that  the  inspired 
Psalms  had  other  purposes  than  simply  devotional. 
David  and  his  companions  were  prophets  of  God, 
in  the  sense  of  foreseers   and   foretellers,  who  were 


Vlll  PREFACE 

"moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost"  to  forecast  the  future, 
and  the  Psalms  form  a  part  of  those  predictive 
Scriptures,  the  burden  of  whose  message  was  a 
coming  Messiah,  who  should  combine  in  one  per- 
son the  characters  of  a  suffering  Saviour  and  a  vic- 
torious king.  In  some  true  sense  Christ  was  "  the 
Desire  of  all  nations."  In  a  more  real  and  definite 
sense  he  was  the  expectation  of  the  Jewish  people. 

This  volume  is  an  attempt  to  unfold  the  prophe- 
cies referring  to  Christ  contained  in  the  Hebrew 
Psalter,  restricted  for  the  most  part  to  those  utter- 
ances which  Christ  and  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  declare  to  be  applicable  to  him.  The 
interpretation  of  prophecy  generally  may  be  at- 
tended with  some  liability  to  error,  but  that  liability 
is  completely  removed  when  the  prophecy  has 
been  accurately  fulfilled  and  its  fulfillment  has 
been  asserted  by  Christ  and  his  inspired  apostles. 

It  has  seemed  desirable  to  substantiate  the  per- 
sonal views  of  the  author  on  important  points  by 
numerous  quotations  from  the  writings  of  bibli- 
cal scholars  of  acknowledged  ability  and  candor. 
These  quotations,  it  is  believed,  have  greatly  en- 
riched the  volume  and  increased  its  value.  The 
aim  of  the  author  has  been  to  present  the  subject 
in  such  a  way  as  to  be  helpful  to  careful  students, 
and  at  the  same  time  attractive  to  ordinary  readers 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures. 

Fulfilled    prophecy  is   indisputable    evidence   of 


PREFACE  IX 

the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  supernatu- 
ral origin  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  said  that 
Frederick  the  Great  once  asked  "What  proof  is 
there  of  the  fulfillment  of  prophecy?"  The  an- 
swer was  "The  Jews,  your  Majesty."  It  might 
have  been  with  equal  propriety  "Jesus  Christ,  your 
Majesty."  Christ  was  the  theme  of  abundant 
prophecy  and  the  subject  of  accurate  history. 
May  this  brief  study  of  him,  in  the  light  of  both 
prophecy  and  history,  help  to  make  him  the  ac- 
cepted King  of  Glory  and  Saviour  of  the  world. 

H.  M.  K. 

Providence,  June,  1899. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAC8 

I.   Psalm  II i 

II.    Psalm  XXII 25 

III.  Psalm  CX 49 

IV.  Psalm  XVI 71 

V.   Psalm  LXXII 97 

VI.   Psalm  XLV 121 

VII.   Psalm  XLVI 147 

VIII.  Special  Quotations 171 

IX.  Special  Quotations  (continued) 197 

X.  Conclusion 229 


CHAPTER  I 
PSALM  II 


I 

This  psalm  is  one  of  the  most  inter- 
sa  m  esting  and  instructive  in  the  entire 

book  of  inspired  poetry.  Its  striking  language 
and  its  sublimity  of  thought  give  to  it  a  conspic- 
uous place  in  the  literature  of  the  ancient  Hebrews. 
Undoubtedly  it  had,  like  other  psalms,  a  local  occa- 
sion and  reference  ;  but  it  is  very  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  to  ascertain  what  it  was,  and  connect 
the  psalm  with  any  known  events  in  Jewish  history 
in  the  reign  of  David,  or  Solomon,  or  Ahaz  (in 
each  case  the  attempt  has  been  made),  or  of  any 
other  king.  It  has  every  appearance  of  having  a 
wider  and  spiritual  application,  a  prophetic  mean- 
ing and  outlook,  and  directs  the  thoughts  inevi- 
tably  to  the  enthronement  of  another  King  and  the 
establishment  and  triumph  of  another  kingdom, 
which  were  yet  to  come. 
Dr.  John  Pye  Smith  says  : 

The  characters  of  this  psalm  are  such  as  to  leave  us  no 
rational  ground  of  applying  them  to  David  or  Solomon,  or 
any  of  their  successors  ;  or  to  any  other  person  than  to  that 
future  Sovereign,  the  predicted  descendant  in  whom  David 
trusted  and  rejoiced,  and  tuned  the  harp  of  Zion  to  cele- 
brate his  holy  dominion. 

3 


4  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  E.  P.  Barrows  thinks  the 
psalm  may  have  had  a  local  occasion  and  refer- 
ence, but  pointed  distinctly  to  a  larger  fulfillment 
in  the  future.      He  says  : 

The  second  Psalm,  which  describes  the  vain  conspiracy 
of  the  heathen  rulers  against  the  Lord' s  anointed  king,  and 
God's  purpose  to  give  him  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth 
for  his  possession,  may  have  had  its  occcasion  in  the  com- 
bination of  the  surrounding  heathen  nations  against  David. 
In  the  victorious  might  with  which  God  endowed  him,  it 
had  a  lower  fulfillment  ;  and  this  was,  so  to  speak,  the  first 
sheaf  of  the  harvest  of  victories  that  was  to  follow.  It  was 
an  earnest  and  pledge  of  the  complete  fulfillment  of  the 
psalm  in  Christ,  in  whom  alone  the  promise  made  to  David, 
"Thine  house  and  thy  kingdom  shall  be  established  for 
ever  before  thee  :  thy  throne  shall  be  established  forever,"  1 
could  have  its  real  accomplishment.2 

Even  Kuenen  acknowledges  : 

We  do  not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  poet  who  com- 
posed the  second  Psalm,  although  proceeding  upon  a  real- 
ity, yet  just  because  he  is  a  poet,  rises  far  above  the  reality. 
The  historical  king  whom  he  has  in  view,  assumes,  as  it 
were,  larger  proportions,  and  becomes  as  depicted  by  him, 
an  ideal.  Connecting  points,  therefore,  are  not  wanting  for 
applying  this  poem  to  the  Messiah. 

Alford  says  : 

The  Messianic  import  of  this  psalm  has  been  acknowl- 
edged even  by  those  who  usually  deny  such  references. 

1  2  Sam.  7:16.  2  Luke  I  :  32,  33. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  5 

This  psalm,  then,  has  uniformly  been  regarded 
by  Christian  interpreters  as  Messianic,  that  is,  as 
having  reference  to  the  Messiah  of  the  Jews,  and 
hence  to  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels,  for  they  are 
believed  to  be  one  and  the  same  person.  The 
belief  in  the  Messianic  character  of  the  psalm  rests 
on  the  following  grounds. 

In  the  first  place,  the  ancient  Jewish  writers  in- 
variably referred  the  psalm  to  the  Messiah.  What- 
ever views  they  may  have  held  about  any  local 
reference,  they  were  agreed  as  to  its  prophetic 
character.  Jewish  commentators  say  distinctly 
that  their  forefathers  made  this  Messianic  applica- 
tion. It  is  true  that  some  of  the  later  Jews  have 
rejected  this  interpretation  ;  but  their  rejection  of 
it  has  evidently  been  the  result  of  their  unwilling- 
ness to  allow  Christians  to  appeal  to  the  psalm  as 
proof  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  true  Messiah. 

Then  too,  the  contents  of  the  psalm  plainly  in- 
dicate that  it  was  prophetic  and  Messianic.  Its 
language  cannot  be  applied  to  any  earthly  king 
or  ruler  without  the  greatest  exaggeration.  The 
kingdom  was  to  be  universal  in  its  extent,  and 
Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews  were  to  be  its  subjects  : 
"Ask  of  me,  and  I  shall  give  thee  the  heathen  for 
thine  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  for  thy  possession."  This  is  exactly  in  har- 
mony with  what  the  Bible  teaches  about  the  reign 
of  the  Messiah.      It  is  to  be  universally  extended. 


6  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Moreover,  in  the  psalm  a  rebellion  is  spoken  of, 
formidable  and  far-reaching,  embracing  kings  as 
well  as  peoples,  which  finds  no  parallel  in  the  reign 
of  David,  and  still  less  in  the  peaceful  reign  of 
Solomon,  but  which  is  accurately  and  painfully  de- 
scriptive of  that  moral  rebellion,  obstinate  and 
wicked,  which  exists  among  men  against  God  and 
his  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

It  should  be  noticed,  also,  that  the  benediction  at 
the  end  of  the  psalm,  "  Blessed  are  all  they  that  pat 
their  trust  in  him"  is  a  benediction  which  in  the 
Scriptures  is  used  only  of  God  or  the  Son  of  God, 
and  is  a  very  strong  proof  that  the  psalm  could  be 
understood  of  no  earthly  sovereign. 

But  the  strongest  proof  of  all,  that  this  psalm 
refers  to  Christ,  the  foretold  Messiah,  is  the  use  and 
endorsement  of  it  made  by  the  inspired  writers  of 
the  New  Testament.  If  in  the  New  Testament  we 
find  quotations  from  any  portion  of  the  Old  applied 
to  Christ,  his  person,  his  life,  his  character,  his  king- 
dom, his  reign  on  earth,  we  can  have  no  doubt  but 
that  was  the  original  intent  and  design.  Any  other 
view  destroys  all  confidence  in  the  inspiration  of 
these  writers,  and  in  their  authority  as  teachers  of 
revealed  truth.  Considered  simply  as  men  and 
students  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  they  were  as 
well  acquainted  with  them  and  their  true  meaning 
as  modern  scholars,  and  were  two  thousand  years 
nearer  the   origin  of  the  writings  which  they  inter- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  7 

pretcd.  Considered  as  men  inspired  and  especially 
enlightened  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  their  exposition 
of  the  Scriptures,  which  the  same  Spirit  of  truth 
had  previously  inspired,  may  well  be  accepted  as 
authoritative  and  final. 

In  Acts  4  :  25-27  we  read  :  "  Who  by  the  mouth 
of  thy  servant  David  hast  said,  Why  did  the  heathen 
rage,  and  the  people  imagine  vain  things  ?  The 
kings  of  the  earth  stood  up,  and  the  rulers  were 
gathered  together  against  the  Lord,  and  against  his 
Christ.  For  of  a  truth  against  thy  holy  child  Jesus, 
whom  thou  hast  anointed,  both  Herod,  and  Pontius 
Pilate,  with  the  Gentiles,  and  the  people  of  Israel, 
were  gathered  together."  In  these  words  the  disci- 
ples distinctly  acknowledge  the  Davidic  authorship 
of  the  psalm  in  a  manner  peculiarly  strong  and  per- 
sonal, and  refer  the  psalm  directly  and  unequivo- 
cally to  Christ,  declaring  that  the  first  two  verses 
found  a  literal  fulfillment  when  Herod  and  Pilate, 
Jew  and  Gentile,  rulers  and  people,  conspired 
against  the  life  and  the  divine  sovereignty  of  Christ. 

In  Acts  13  :  33  the  Apostle  Paul  quotes  the 
seventh  verse  of  the  psalm,  "  Thou  art  my  Son, 
this  day  have  I  begotten  thee,"  as  having  been 
spoken  with  reference  to  Christ,  and  having  been 
fulfilled  at  the  time  of  his  resurrection  from  the 
dead.  In  like  manner  in  Heb.  1  :  5  the  same  verse 
is  quoted  as  having  been  the  language  addressed 
by  God  the  Father  to  Jesus  the  divine  Son,  indeed 


8  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

as  if  this  were  its  original  and  exclusive  use,  and  it 
is  brought  forward  in  the  Epistle  to  show  the  su- 
periority of  Christ,  in  nature  and  rank,  to  the  holy 
angels.      A  similar  quotation  is  made  in  Heb.  5  :  5. 

Kuenen  having  acknowledged,  as  already  quoted, 
the  legitimate  Messianic  application  of  this  psalm, 
criticises  the  New  Testament  writers  for  an  alleged 
contradictory  reference  of  the  seventh  verse,  viz  : 
"  Thou  art  my  Son  ;  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee," 
one  writer  referring  it,  in  his  opinion,  to  Christ's 
glory  in  his  pre-existent  state,1  and  another  to  the 
glory  conferred  upon  him  at  his  resurrection.2  If 
this  two-fold  reference  were  true,  it  would  be  per- 
fectly justifiable,  for  Christ  himself  declared  that 
the  glory  of  his  pre-existent  state  and  his  resurrec- 
tion glory  were  essentially  one  and  the  same  : 
"  And  now,  O  Father,  glorify  thou  me  with  thine 
own  self  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  thee 
before  the  world  was."  3 

But  Kuenen  is  in  error  in  supposing  two  differ- 
ent references  of  the  words  by  New  Testament 
writers.  Dr.  Franklin  Johnson,  in  his  able  volume, 
"The  Quotations  of  the  New  Testament  from  the 
Old,"  p.  238,  is  correct  when  he  says  : 

The  supposed  diversity  of  view  does  not  exist.  In  Acts 
13  :  33  the  words  are  brought  into  connection  with  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus,  as  Kuenen  says,  and  they  are  brought 

1  Heb.  1  :  5  J  5  =  5-         2  Acts  l3  ■  33-         3  John  l1  •  5- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    TSALMS  9 

Into  no  other  connection  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  In 
Heb.  1  :  5  they  are  quoted  as  referring  to  the  glory  of 
Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  but  no  point  of  time  is  indicated, 
unless  it  is  that  of  the  preceding  verse,  which  refers  to  the 
glory  to  which  his  resurrection  introduced  him.  In  Heb. 
5  :  5-io  the  words  of  the  psalm  are  distinctly  referred  to 
this  state  of  glory  ;  for  both  his  Sonship  and  his  priesthood 
are  considered  as  having  commenced  after  his  sufferings. 
Thus  all  the  instances  in  which  the  psalm  is  quoted  are  in 
perfect  accord.  It  should  be  added  that  both  in  the  Acts 
and  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  the  Sonship  of  Christ  is 
regarded  as  beginning  at  his  resurrection  only  declaratively, 
since  that  event  demonstrated  to  the  world  a  dignity  which 
had  existed  from  eternity. 

These  repeated  citations  and  references  by  the 
inspired  writers  of  the  New  Testament  leave  us  in 
no  doubt  as  to  the  psalm's  prophetic  meaning  and 
application.  It  is  a  sublime  vision  of  the  establish- 
ment and  progress  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  the 
world,  encountering  opposition  indeed,  of  men  in 
high  places  and  in  low  places,  violent  and  wide- 
spread, but  utterly  vain  and  contemptible  in  view 
of  the  being  and  power  of  him  against  whom  it 
rages,  and  it  contains  an  emphatic  declaration  of 
the  purpose  of  God  himself,  in  spite  of  all  ob- 
stacles, to  place  his  Son,  the  Messiah,  upon  the 
throne  of  universal  dominion,  whose  royal  anger 
shall  be  certain  and  overwhelming  destruction,  and 
whose  princely  favor  shall  be  blessing  and  life  for- 
evermore. 

Such  is  the  inspiring  outline  and  purpose  of  this 


IO  I  HE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

psalm,  as  uniformly  understood.  It  will  be  profit- 
able to  examine  it  now  in  detail  and  analyze  its 
remarkable  structure.  The  style  is  exceedingly 
dramatic,  and  several  speakers  are  introduced,  a 
fact  which  gives  to  it  all  the  vividness  and  im- 
pressiveness  of  an  actual  scene.  No  less  than  four 
different  persons,  or  parties,  are  brought  forward 
in  the  brief  drama,  viz,  the  psalmist,  the  multitude 
in  rebellion,  Jehovah,  and  his  Anointed  Son.  It  is 
a  bold  and  graphic  representation  of  the  greatest 
facts  in  the  world's  history,  a  truthful  picture  of  the 
moral  relation  of  men  to  the  righteous  Sovereign 
of  the  universe,  an  instructive  lesson  setting  forth 
the  folly  of  disobedience  and  the  wisdom  of  sub- 
mission to  God's  almighty  Son,  and  an  inspired 
prophecy  of  his  ultimate  and  glorious  triumph  in 
the  world. 

We  hear,  first  (ver.  i,  2),  the  voice  of  the  psalm- 
ist, expressing  his  amazement  at  the  picture  which 
he  sees  among  men,  the  wild  tumult  of  a  great 
rebellion^  whole  peoples  combining  in  open  insur- 
rection, kings  joining  in  a  wicked  and  foolish  con- 
spiracy against  the  rightful  Sovereign  of  all  men  : 
"  Why  do  the  heathen  rage,  and  the  people  imagine 
a  vain  tiling  ?  The  kings  of  the  earth  set  tJiem- 
selves,  and  the  rulers  take  counsel  together,  against 
Jehovah,  and  against  his  Anointed." 

The  loyal  heart  of  the  psalmist  breaks  out  in 
astonished  utterance  at  such  strange  and  inexplica- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  I  I 

ble  conduct,  that  men,  that  any  men,  should  pre- 
sume, should  dare,  should  be  so  rash  as  to  rise  in 
rebellion  against  the  Almighty,  and  refuse  to  ac- 
knowledge his  Anointed  Son.  "Why" — a  question 
at  once  of  wonder  and  horror.  Why  do  they  en- 
ter upon  such  an  unnatural  and  hazardous  under- 
taking ?  Why  do  they  embark  upon  such  an  un- 
holy and  preposterous  conspiracy?  It  is  not  a 
cruel  tyrant  or  an  unrighteous  usurper,  but  the 
true  and  blessed  King,  the  lawful  Sovereign  of 
mankind,  against  whom  they  have  taken  up  arms. 
"It  is  Jehovah  himself  who  is  assailed  in  the  per- 
son of  the  King,  whom  he  has  set  on  the  throne. 
Such  an  enterprise  cannot  but  fail.  In  its  very 
nature  it  is  a  vain  thing."  "In  this  word,"  says 
Luther,  "is  comprised  the  argument  of  nearly  the 
whole  psalm.  How  can  they  succeed,  who  set 
themselves  against  Jehovah  and  against  his  Christ?" 
Why,  then,  will  men  undertake  and  persist  in  such 
an  unholy,  futile,  unjustifiable,  insane  rebellion  ? 
Why  will  they  do  it?  It  is  the  exclamation  of  an 
irrepressible  astonishment  and  moral  shock.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  the  psalmist's  heart  was  over- 
whelmed with  surprise.  It  is  enough  to  excite  the 
deepest  amazement  in  every  thoughtful  mind  that 
even  one  man,  and  much  more  that  whole  nations, 
aye,  that  the  whole  race  of  men,  should  lift  up  a 
hostile  hand  against  a  Being  of  infinite  power  and 
purity  and  love. 


12  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

But  in  the  midst  of  the  psalmist's  words,  break- 
ing in  like  a  sudden  interruption,  rises  the  loud, 
blasphemous  shout  of  the  rebels,  unanimous,  unre- 
lenting, and  defiant  (ver.  3):  "Let  us  break  tJieir 
bands  asunder,  and  cast  away  their  cords  from  us." 
"The  metaphor,"  it  has  been  said,  "is  borrowed 
from  restive  animals,  which  break  the  cords  and 
throw  off  the  yoke."  There  could  not  be  a  more 
accurate  description  of  man's  condition.  This  re- 
veals the  very  essence  of  all  sin.  It  is  a  breaking 
away  from  wholesome  restraint,  a  refusal  to  ac- 
knowledge rightful  authority,  a  setting  up  of  one's 
own  will  against  the  will  of  God,  a  determination 
to  have  one's  own  way  in  defiance  of  the  known 
precepts  of  Christ  and  the  distinct  teachings  of 
conscience.  Christ  expressed  it  in  a  single  sugges- 
tive word,  when  he  represented  the  wicked  and  re- 
bellious servants  of  the  parable  as  saying,  "We 
will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  us."  We 
have  seen  how  it  is  illustrated  in  the  family.  First, 
there  is  a  chafing  under  parental  counsel,  then  a 
murmuring  against  kind  and  wholesome  restraints, 
then  a  secret  disobedience  of  expressed  wishes, 
then  an  open  disregard  of  wise  commands,  then  at 
last  a  bold  and  defiant  breaking  away  from  all 
home  authority  and  influence,  the  asserting  of 
one's  own  will  as  supreme  ;  and  the  rebellion  is  an 
accomplished  and  bitter  fact.  A  sad  day  is  it 
when   the  heart  of  the  child  grows  restless  under 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 3 

the  holy  restraints  of  home  and  parental  authority. 
It  is  the  swelling  and  bursting  of  seeds  whose  fruit 
will  be  painful  and  deadly.  Yet  the  whole  world 
is  represented  as  having  broken  away  from  the  wise 
and  beneficent  authority  of  the  great  Father,  and 
as  having  lifted  its  rebellious  hand  against  the  Sov- 
ereign of  all  nations  and  of  all  worlds  ;  and  this  is 
the  spoken  or  unspoken  sentiment  of  every  disobe- 
dient heart:  "Let  us  break  their  bands  asunder, 
and  cast  away  their  cords  from  us." 

Again  the  psalmist  speaks.  Seeing  the  foolish- 
ness and  futility  of  all  attempted  resistance  of  the 
Almighty,  he  declares  (ver.  4,  5)  :  "He  that  sitteth 
in  the  heavens  shall  lau^Ji :  the  Lord  shall  have 
them  in  derision.  Then  shall  lie  speak  unto  than  in 
his  wrath,  and  vex  them  in  his  sore  displeasure." 
In  explanation  of  these  striking  words  another  has 
said:  "From  all  this  wild  tempest  of  confusion 
upon  earth,  from  the  trampling  of  gathering  armies, 
and  the  pride  of  kingly  captains  and  their  words 
of  haughty  menace,  the  poet  turns  his  eye  to 
heaven.  There,  on  his  everlasting  throne,  sits  the 
almighty  King,  in  whose  sight  all  nations  and  kings 
are  but  as  a  drop  of  the  bucket."  It  is  the  picture 
of  the  calm  tranquillity  of  One  who  patiently  laughs 
at  the  puny  efforts  of  men  to  resist  his  authority 
and  thwart  his  purpose,  and  holds  them  all  in  quiet 
derision,  and  then  by  the  word  of  his  mouth,  by 
the   tone   of  his  voice,  sends   fright  and   confusion 


14  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

into  the  ranks  of  his  enemies,  and  moves  on  un- 
hindered and  undisturbed  to  the  accomplishment 
of  his  fixed  and  unalterable  design. 

What  is  that  design  which  rulers  and  nations 
had  conspired  to  defeat  ?  What  is  that  divine  pur- 
pose which  has  aroused  such  concentrated  and  vio- 
lent opposition  among  men  ? 

Jehovah  himself  is  now  represented  (ver.  6)  as 
appearing  upon  the  scene,  and  uttering  his  voice 
in  the  presence  of  the  silenced  multitude,  calmly, 
distinctly,  emphatically  announcing  his  eternal  pur- 
pose, against  which  the  combined  hostility  of  men 
should  have  no  power  to  prevail. 

"  Yet  have  I  set  my  King  upon  my  holy  hill  of 
Zion"  (ver.  6).  This  is  God's  answer  in  person  to 
his  enemies.  The  "I"  is  emphatic.  Men  may 
plot,  princes  may  conspire,  the  nations  may  op- 
pose, but  /,  the  Almighty,  the  Sovereign  of  heaven 
and  earth,  have  set  my  anointed  King,  my  Son, 
upon  the  throne,  I  have  done  it,  and  no  power 
on  earth  can  annul  or  set  aside  my  action.  Christ 
is  King.  Our  Christ  is  the  anointed,  the  enthroned 
of  God.  He  may  be  despised  and  rejected  of  men  ; 
he  may  come  to  his  own  and  his  own  receive  him 
not ;  he  may  be  scourged  and  spit  upon,  crowned 
with  thorns,  and  robed  in  mock  purple ;  he  may 
be  crucified,  and  classed  with  thieves,  and  covered 
with  dishonor  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  his  kingly 
authority   laughed   to  scorn    and  his   royal  claims 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  I  5 

treated  with  contempt ;  yet  God  says,  /  have  ex- 
alted him  to  the  throne  of  the  universe.  "  /  have 
set  him  upon  my  holy  hill  of  Zion." 

This  does  not  denote  any  local  enthronement, 
any  literal  exaltation  to  the  throne  of  David,  but 
rather  a  spiritual  coronation,  as  will  be  seen  from 
the  next  verse.  It  is  that  to  which  Peter  referred 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  he  said  :  "God  hath 
made  that  same  Jesus,  whom  ye  have  crucified, 
both  Lord  and  Christ," !  and  also  in  his  Epistle 
when  he  wrote,  "The  stone  which  the  builders  dis- 
allowed, the  same  is  made  the  head  of  the  corner,"  2 
and  the  same  thing  to  which  Paul  referred  in  his 
sublime  words  to  the  Philippians  :3  "Wherefore 
God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a 
name  which  is  above  every  name  :  that  at  the  name 
of  Jesus  ever  knee  should  bow,  of  things  in 
heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things  under  the 
earth  ;  and  that  every  tongue  should  confess  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father." 

We  sometimes  forget,  when  we  think  of  the 
apparently  slow  progress  of  Christ's  kingdom 
among  men,  and  the  immense  amount  of  opposi- 
tion and  darkness  that  still  obstructs  the  way,  and 
come  together  in  our  little  companies  to  sing 

And  crown  him  Lord  of  all, 
1  Acts  2  :  36.  2  1  Peter  2:7.  '2:9-11. 


1 6  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

that  our  Saviour  is  already  on  the  throne,  exalted 
to  regal  authority  and  power,  placed  and  sus- 
tained there  by  the  eternally  fixed  purpose  and 
pledged  almightiness  of  Jehovah.  It  is  not  now  a 
hope,  a  possibility,  a  prophecy  ;  but  it  is  a  realiza- 
tion, an  accomplished  fact,  a  glorious  achievement, 
beyond  the  possibility  of  failure.  Christ  went 
from  the  cross  and  the  tomb  to  the  throne  of  uni- 
versal empire. 

And  now  a  new  speaker  appears  upon  the  scene, 
and  this  is  none  other  than  the  Anointed  Son,  who 
boldly  asserts  his  divine  authority,  and  proclaims 
the  nature  and  universality  of  his  kingdom  (ver. 
7,  8,  9).  "  /  will  declare  the  decree  [that  is,  the 
official  counsel  and  instruction  which  he  had  re- 
ceived of  the  Father]  :  the  Lord  hath  said  unto  me, 
Thou  art  my  Son  ;  tins  day  have  I  begotten  thee. 
Ask  of  me,  and  I  shall  give  thee  the  heathen  for 
thine  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth 
for  thy  possession.  Thou  shalt  break  them  with  a 
rod  of  iron  ;  thou  shalt  dash  them  in  pieces  like  a 
potter 's  z' ess  el." 

Wellhausen,  in  a  note  on  this  passage,  in  the 
Polychrome  edition  of  the  Bible,  makes  the  follow- 
ing remarkable  comment : 

The  Messiah  is  the  speaker.  It  is  not  merely  the  hopes 
concerning  the  future  to  which  he  gives  expression  ;  it  is 
the  claims  to  world-wide  dominion  already  cherished  by  the 
Jewish  theocracy.     All  the  heathen  are  destined  to  obey  the 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  \J 

Jews  ;  if  they  fail  to  do  so,  they  are  rebels.  The  Messiah 
js  the  incarnation  of  Israel's  universal  rule.  He  and  Is- 
rael are  almost  identical,  and  it  matters  little  whether  we 
say  that  Israel  has  or  is  the  Messiah. 

This  note  expresses  the  author's  view,  if  we  under- 
stand it,  that  the  psalm  does  not  necessarily  point 
to  a  personal  and  individual  fulfillment,  and  that 
the  Messiah  may  be  nothing  more  than  the  Jewish 
nation,  a  view  which  will  find  little  acceptance 
among  biblical  scholars.  The  language  of  the  note 
is  confusing,  and  its  apparent  interpretation  of  the 
passage  is  unnatural.  We  turn  from  it  with  satis- 
faction to  the  plain  and  authoritative  interpretation 
of  an  inspired  apostle. 

The  remarkable  words,  "Thou  art  my  Son,  this 
day  have  T  begotten  thee,"  mean,  as  we  learn  from 
Rom.  I  :  4  and  Acts  13  :  33,  "this  day  have  I  de- 
clared and  manifested  thee  to  be  my  Son  by  in- 
vesting thee  with  thy  kingly  dignity  and  placing 
thee  on  thy  throne"  ;  and  the  day  referred  to  was 
the  day  when  God  raised  Christ  from  the  dead. 
In  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  Paul  asserts  that 
Christ  was  "declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with 
power  according  to  the  Spirit  of  holiness,  by  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead  "  ;  and  in  Acts  also,  the 
language,  "this  day  have  I  begotten  thee,"  is  re- 
ferred to  that  culminating  act  of  Christ  on  earth, 
and  the  crowning  article  of  the  Christian  faith,  his 
glorious   resurrection.      Herder  says  :   "The  three 

B 


15  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

luminous  points  of  a  heavenly  attestation  of  the 
anointed  of  God  are  the  baptism,  the  transfigura- 
tion, and  the  resurrection."  It  is  impossible  to 
find  in  these  words  of  the  psalmist  a  prophecy  of 
Christ's  return  to  some  earthly  throne.  His  resur- 
rection day  was  his  coronation  day.  He  is  already 
crowned.  He  is  now  "  set  down  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  throne  of  God,"  dispensing  grace  and  judg- 
ment, and  guiding  the  affairs  of  his  advancing 
kingdom.  He  reigns  not  by  the  will  of  men,  not 
by  the  suffrages  nor  by  the  sufferance  of  men,  but 
by  the  infinite  grace  and  promulgated  decree  of 
Jehovah.  And  his  kingdom  is  to  be  no  limited, 
mountain-defined,  ocean-bound  territory,  is  to  be 
confined  to  no  single  people  or  continent  or  hemi- 
sphere, but  is  to  embrace  the  uncounted  millions 
of  heathen  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 
These  remotest  lands,  by  whatever  peoples  inhab- 
ited, by  whatever  superstitions  darkened,  by  what- 
ever sins  infested,  are  to  become  Christ's  inheri- 
tance and  possession.  Authority  is  given  to  him 
to  break  those  who  will  not  bend,  and  to  destroy 
those  who  will  not  submit.  With  a  rod  of  iron 
will  he  break  them,  and  dash  them  in  pieces  like 
a  cracked  and  worthless  piece  of  pottery.  The 
royal  Son  of  God  sits  upon  his  throne,  holding  in 
one  hand  the  promise  of  universal  dominion,  and 
in  the  other  the  iron  sceptre  of  his  righteous  rule. 
This  is  the  picture  which  the  psalm  presents,  not 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 9 

the  picture  of  the  man  of  sorrows,  not  the  picture 
of  a  suffering  Messiah,  but  the  photograph  of  an 
almighty  Conqueror  and  world-wide  King,  who 
will  subdue  by  his  resistless  power,  where  he  can- 
not conquer  by  his  princely  love.  It  is  dominion, 
far-reaching,  universal  dominion,  that  has  been 
promised  to  the  Messiah,  and  dominion,  far-reach- 
ing, universal  dominion,  that  he  will  ultimately 
have — the  conditions  and  results  being  determined 
by  the  dispositions  and  conduct  of  individual  men, 
when  entreated  to  acknowledge  his  supremacy  and 
become  the  subjects  of  his  spiritual  kingdom. 

Objection  has  been  made  to  the  warlike  tone  of 
this  psalm,  as  well  as  of  the  one  hundred  and  tenth 
Psalm.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  "  David 
was  a  warrior  from  his  youth,  and  it  was  natural 
for  him  to  predict  the  conquests  of  the  Messiah." 
Of  the  positive  Messianic  character  of  both  of 
these  brief  but  remarkable  psalms,  Dr.  Richard  G. 
Moulton  says : 

In  two  psalms  we  have  the  full  Messianic  conception  ; 
the  Lord's  Anointed  is  exalted  (Ps.  2)  over  the  whole 
earth  in  spite  of  the  vain  opposition  of  earthly  rulers  ; 
again  (Ps.  no)  Jehovah  bids  his  chosen  sit  at  his  right 
hand  until  his  foes  have  become  his  footstool,  while  he  is 
exalted  King  over  the  nations,  priest  forever  after  the  order 
of  Melchizedek. 

Once  more  the  voice  of  the  psalmist  is  heard, 
pleading  with  men,  in  view  of  what  has  been  said, 


20  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

to  desist  from  their  wicked  rebellion,  and  wisely 
submit  to  the  righteous  rule  of  him  whom  Jeho- 
vah has  proclaimed  King  (ver.  io,  n,  12).  "Be 
wise  now  therefore,  0  ye  kings  :  be  instructed,  ye 
judges  of  the  earth  [the  influential  leaders  and  in- 
stigators of  rebellion].  Serve  the  Loj'd  with  fear, 
and  rejoice  with  trembling.  Kiss  the  Son,  lest  he 
be  angry,  and  ye  perish  in  your  way,  for  soon  will 
his  wrath  be  kindled.  Blessed  are  all  they  that  put 
their  trust  in  him." 

This  is  the  language  of  a  man  pleading  with  his 
fellow-men,  who  are  capable  of  listening  to  reason 
and  receiving  instruction.  It  is  the  language  of  a 
brother  pleading  with  his  kinsmen,  whom  he  sees 
engaged  in  a  wicked  and  hazardous  undertaking. 
It  is  the  language  of  God's  inspired  prophet  plead- 
ing with  the  creatures  whom  he  has  made,  to 
desist  from  their  disobedience  and  opposition,  to 
lower  the  flag  of  their  hostility,  to  ground  the 
arms  of  their  rebellion,  to  surrender  at  once  and 
unconditionally,  to  become  the  loyal  subjects  of 
him  who  is  their  Maker,  their  almighty  Sovereign, 
and  their  righteous  Judge.  No  language  could  be 
more  faithful  or  more  tenderly  persuasive.  It  may 
be  briefly  paraphrased  thus  :  O  men  of  the  high- 
est as  well  as  of  the  lowest  rank,  act  wisely ;  be 
not  deaf  to  the  voice  of  wisdom  ;  abandon  your 
insane  resistance  of  God  ;  enlist  in  his  joyful  serv- 
ice ;  acknowledge  him  whom  he  has  anointed  King 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  2  1 

of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords  ;  place  upon  his  sin- 
less, royal  brow,  no,  not  there,  for  sinful  lips  may 
not  touch  such  ineffable  glory,  but  upon  his  pierced 
and  bleeding  hand,  the  kiss  of  humble  submission 
and  loving  devotion  ;  and  do  it  quickly,  before  it 
shall  be  too  late  ;  wait  not  till  his  punitive  wrath 
shall  be  kindled  against  you,  but  escape  its  con- 
suming flames  by  the  surrender  of  a  trusting  and 
loyal  heart,  and  into  it  shall  come  the  peace  of  his 
acceptance  and  the  blessedness  of  his  salvation. 
For  blessed,  unspeakably  blessed,  are  all  they  that 
put  their  trust  in  him. 

Such  is  the  great  world-drama,  as  it  has  been  writ- 
ten by  the  pen  of  inspiration,  and  such  are  the  dra- 
matis persona.  What  great  truths  does  this  pro- 
phetic psalm   especially  emphasize  and  set  forth? 

i.  We  must  not  overlook  that  important  truth, 
so  impressively  taught,  viz,  the  folly  and  danger  of 
all  sin  against  God.  Sin  is  rebellion,  and  every 
man  who  sins  willfully  is  a  rebel  against  the  divine 
government.  Every  act  of  disobedience  is  an  act 
of  rebellion,  and  the  very  essence  of  anarchy.  It 
is  a  blow  struck  at  immutable  and  eternal  right, 
at  the  foundations  of  the  moral  universe,  at  the  di- 
vine sovereignty.  No  such  rebellion,  it  is  obvious, 
can  succeed,  and  every  man  engaged  in  it  has  only 
this  choice,  penitence  or  penalty. 

2.  But  the  psalm  is  almost  entirely  prophetic, 
and   was  intended  to  set  forth  the  person  and  dig- 


22  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

nity  of  the  Messiah,  and  the  triumph  of  his  king- 
dom on  the  earth.  Christ  is  King,  put  upon  the 
throne  by  God  himself,  and  established  there  by 
his  almighty  decree,  the  recognized  Son  of  God, 
and  his  vicegerent  on  earth,  to  be  honored  and 
acknowledged  as  such  by  all  men  who  would  not 
be  found  opposing  God.  God's  hand  has  put  the 
crown  upon  his  brow  ;  let  no  human  hand  presume 
to  take  it  off 

3.  The  kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  that  is,  of 
Christ,  is  to  be  universal.  In  spite  of  the  infidelity 
and  organized  opposition  of  men,  in  spite  of  the 
inactivity  and  unfaithfulness  of  his  disciples,  his 
dominion  is  to  embrace  all  nations  and  all  men. 
All  religious  systems,  however  hoary  with  age,  and 
however  deeply  rooted  in  the  customs  and  faiths  of 
men,  are  to  go  down  before  the  onward  march  of 
Christian  truth.  The  dark  unbelief  of  the  world 
of  every  shade,  animism,  heathenism,  naturalism, 
materialism,  agnosticism,  deism,  is  to  disappear  be- 
fore the  bright  shining  of  the  Sun  of  righteousness. 
Myriads  of  hearts,  now  dumb,  shall  join  in  sing- 
ing Christ's  coronation  hymn,  and  myriads  of 
hands,  now  unwilling,  shall  help  to  crown  him 
"Lord  of  all." 

This  world  is  Christ's  world.  He  formed  it  by 
his  creative  power.  He  has  purchased  it  by  his 
redeeming  grace.  He  has  been  enthroned  as  its 
rightful  Sovereign.      He  shall  yet  come  into  full 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  23 

possession  of  it.  Its  forces,  its  literatures,  its  life, 
its  civilizations,  its  populations  shall  be  his  on 
every  continent  and  remotest  island  of  the  sea. 
"The  heathen  for  his  inheritance  and  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth  for  his  possession."  Upon 
this  infallible  promise,  this  divine  assurance,  we 
send  forth  our  missionaries  and  preach  the  gospel 
to  every  creature.     In  the  words  of  another  : 

Christ  shall  yet  take  possession  of  the  things  he  has 
made.  The  steam  and  the  lightning  shall  yet  do  his. bid- 
ding ;  learning  shall  lay  all  its  laurels  at  the  feet  of  him  who 
is  the  absolute  truth  and  the  infinite  wisdom  ;  art  shall 
learn  a  heavenlier  beauty  when  kneeling  before  the  "alto- 
gether lovely"  ;  great  cities  and  lands  now  filled  with  vio- 
lence shall  be  filled  with  his  praise  ;  the  ancient  capitals  of 
civilization  shall  renew  their  former  glories  when  he  is  glo- 
rified, and  Jerusalem,  now  lying  a  broken  diadem  beneath 
the  morning  shadows  of  Olivet,  shall  be  builded  anew  to 
the  honor  of  him  who  was  once  crucified  without  her 
ancient  gate.  The  City  of  God  which  St.  Augustine  cele- 
brated is  to  descend  upon  all  the  homes  and  the  institutions 
of  men.  Thy  walls  shall  be  salvation  and  thy  gates  praise. 
Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go  down,  neither  shall  thy  moon 
destroy  itself,  for  the  Lord  shall  be  thy  everlasting  light,  and 
the  days  of  thy  mourning  shall  be  ended. 

4.  Such  positive  revelations  of  the  personal  glory 
of  the  Messiah,  and  resistless  power  and  world- 
wide dominion  suggest  corresponding  duties  and 
obligations  on  the  part  of  men.  It  is  the  dictate  of 
wisdom  for  every  moral  being  to  whom  the  knowl- 


24  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

edge  of  this  once  foretold  but  now  historic  Messiah 
has  come,  to  submit  immediately  to  the  great  Son 
of  God,  the  world's  King  and  Saviour.  It  is  wiser, 
infinitely  wiser,  to  seek  his  favor  than  to  incur  his 
wrath,  to  accept  his  grace  than  to  brave  his  power, 
to  be  enlisted  with  him  and  for  him  rather  than 
against  him  in  the  conflict  which  is  going  on  in  the 
world  between  good  and  evil,  between  righteous- 
ness and  unrighteousness,  between  Christ  and  his 
foes — a  conflict  which  can  have  but  one  issue.  'To 
kiss  the  divine  Son  in  humble  submission  and  loving 
loyalty  is  every  man's  immediate  duty  and  highest 
privilege  and  only  safety. 

5.  It  is,  moreover,  the  imperative  duty  of  those 
who  have  acknowledged  the  Messiah,  who  have 
submitted  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  crowned 
him  supreme  in  their  affections,  to  imitate  the  exam- 
ple of  the  inspired  psalmist,  and  to  appeal  to  men 
everywhere,  "Be  wise,  be  instructed,  cease  your 
opposition,  serve  the  Lord,  kiss  the  Son,  yield  to 
the  Sovereign  of  your  souls,"  and  to  show  by  their 
strong  faith,  their  cheerful  devotion,  their  enlarged 
generosity,  their  glad  and  hopeful  spirits,  their  pure 
and  godly  lives,  how  "  blessed  are  all  they  that  put 
their  trust  in  him." 


CHAPTER  II 
PSALM  XXII 


II 

This  psalm  has  been  uniformly  re- 
Psalm  XXII  ,  £  r    4.U       tut      •     • 

garded    as    one    of    the     Messianic 

psalms,  that  is,  as  pointing  forward  to  Christ,  not 
only  in  a  general  way  as  the  supreme  Sufferer,  but 
in  a  very  particular  and  minute  manner  referring 
to  events  connected  with  the  crucifixion  of  the 
Saviour. 

The  reasons  for  this  belief  are  three.  First, 
Jewish  writers  have  understood  it  to  be  Messianic, 
that  is,  those  of  them  who  have  admitted  that  their 
coming  Messiah  was  to  be  a  sufferer,  have  reckoned 
this  psalm  as  one  of  the  prophetic  passages  in  their 
Holy  Scriptures  which  foreshadowed  the  character, 
the  condition,  and  the  mission  of  their  expected 
deliverer. 

What  Dr.  W.  A.  Scott  has  said  in  "The  Christ 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed,"  in  reference  to  the  fifty- 
third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  is  equally  applicable  to  this 
psalm  : 

It  is  confessed  by  the  most  ancient  Jewish  authorities  that 
this  prophecy  does  relate  to  the  Messiah.  And  so  plainly 
does  it  suit  the  character  of  Jesus  that  it  has  long  been  con- 
tended by  some  Jewish  rabbis  that  two  Messiahs  are  prom- 
ised in  their  sacred  books,  one  to  redeem  and  suffer  and 

27 


28  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

another  to  reign  as  a  glorious  Prince.  A  sufficient  answer 
to  this  is,  that  such  an  interpretation  of  the  old  Hebrew 
Scriptures  is  clearly  an  invention,  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
rid  of  the  testimony  of  the  sacred  writers  to  Jesus  as  the 
promised  Messiah.  We  are  not  able  to  find  a  syllable  in 
support  of  it  from  the  beginning  of  Genesis  to  the  end  of  the 
book  of  Revelation.  Moses  and  the  prophets  and  the 
psalms  know  nothing  of  two  Messiahs  ;  but  they  do  speak  of 
one  Messiah,  who  was  both  to  suffer  and  die  and  to  triumph, 
to  be  humbled  and  to  be  exalted,  to  be  clothed  with  human- 
ity and  yet  to  wear  the  robe  of  immortality  and  of  ineffable 
majesty. 

A  second  reason  for  believing  this  psalm  to  be 
Messianic  is,  that  its  language,  while  partially  true 
of  human  sufferers  and  human  situations,  is  fully 
applicable  only  to  the  divine  Sufferer  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  his  death.  Expressions  are  used  in 
the  psalm  which  have  no  known  or  natural  or  pos- 
sible fulfillment  outside  of  the  Christ  of  Calvary. 
To  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  record  of  the 
life  and  passion  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  language  of 
the  psalm  harmonizes  perfectly  with  the  inspired 
historic  narrative. 

And  the  third,  and  the  strongest  and  conclusive 
reason  for  accepting  the  psalm  as  a  Messianic 
prophecy  is,  that  Christ  and  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  in  their  use  of  it  declare  it  to  be  such 
with  the  utmost  positiveness  and  assurance.  The 
language  of  the  psalm  not  only  harmonizes  with 
the  historic  narrative,  but  it  is  actually  found  in  the 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  29 

historic  narrative.  It  has  been  chosen  to  describe 
the  sufferings  of  Christ  and  the  particular  events  of 
his  crucifixion.  Unless  we  are  ready  to  surrender 
all  faith  in  the  inspiration  of  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  more  than  that,  unless  we  are  ready 
to  abandon  all  faith  in  the  authority  of  Christ  him- 
self, we  must  accept  this  Messianic  application  of 
the  psalm. 

This  does  not  prevent,  however,  some  local  ap- 
plication and  some  partial  fulfillment,  if  we  can  de- 
termine what  it  is.  It  is  not  infrequently  the  case 
that  divine  prophecies  which  find  their  perfect 
and  adequate  and  intended  fulfillment  in  Christ, 
have  a  local  meaning  and  reference.  They  are 
history  made  sublimely  typical  and  prophetic, 
human  experience  made  doubly  significant  and 
sacred,  because  the  Son  of  God  became  our 
brother,  and  took  upon  himself  our  nature  and  en- 
tered into  our  sorrows  and  griefs,  human  experi- 
ences finding  their  larger  meaning  and  purpose  in 
his  experiences,  who  was  tempted  in  all  points  like 
as  we  are,  yet  without  sin,  and  who  gave  his  life  a 
ransom  for  many. 

The  difficulty  in  the  case  of  this  psalm,  as  of 
some  others,  is  to  determine  its  local  application 
and  make  its  minute  descriptions  apply  accurately 
to  any  contemporaneous  event  or  experience.  Ac- 
cording to  the  inscription,  this  psalm  was  composed 
by  David.     That  is  the  traditional  belief  of  its  au- 


30  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

thorship,  though  we  have  not,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
second  Psalm,  the  distinct  assertion  of  the  New 
Testament  to  that  effect ;  but  even  De  Wette  was 
compelled  to  confess  that  nothing  decisive  could  be 
urged  against  this  view. 

There  is,  however,  no  known  circumstance  in  the 
life  of  David  to  which  the  psalm  is  especially  ap- 
plicable. It  can  be  said  that  "in  none  of  his  per- 
secutions by  Saul  was  he  ever  reduced  to  such 
straits  as  those  here  described."  Calvin  was  led  to 
suggest  the  explanation  that  David  gathered  up 
into  one  bitter  experience  the  whole  story  of  his 
persecutions  and  sufferings,  an  explanation  wholly 
unsatisfactory.      Delitzsch  truthfully  remarks  : 

David's  description  of  personal  experience  in  suffering 
goes  far  beyond  any  that  he  himself  had  known,  his  com- 
plaints descend  into  a  lower  depth  than  he  himself  had 
sounded,  and  his  hopes  rise  higher  than  any  realized  re- 
ward. Through  this  hyperbolical  character  the  psalm  be- 
came typico-prophetic.  David,  as  the  sufferer,  there  con- 
templates himself  and  his  experience  in  Christ,  and  his  own 
present  and  future  both  thereby  acquire  a  background  which 
in  height  and  depth  greatly  transcends  the  limits  of  his  own 
personality. 

Some  have  supposed  that  the  psalm  was  pro- 
phetic of  the  sufferings  of  the  children  of  Israel  to 
be  endured  in  their  exile,  they  being  personified  as 
a  single  sufferer.  And  still  others,  of  late,  in  order 
to  get  rid  of  the  reality  of  supernatural  prophecy, 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  3 1 

have  placed  the  date  of  the  psalm  after  the  exile 
and  regarded  it  as  a  history  of  the  sufferings  of  that 
national  experience.  Against  these  views  there  are 
most  serious  objections. 

The  psalm  contains  descriptive  language  which 
does  not  fit  into  any  real  or  supposable  experience, 
personal  or  national,  in  the  history  of  Israel.  The 
language  is  too  broad,  and  at  the  same  time  too 
particular,  too  comprehensive,  and  at  the  same  time 
too  specific.  Whoever  he  may  have  been,  "we  must 
not,"  says  Perowne,  "narrow  the  application  of  the 
psalm  to  the  circumstances  of  the  original  sufferer. 
It  has  evidently  a  far  higher  reference.  It  looks 
forward  to  Christ.  It  is  a  foreshadowing  of  him 
and  of  his  passion,  and  arguing  from  the  analogy' 
of  the  sixteenth  Psalm,  we  might  even  say  a  coi- 
scious  foreshadowing."  (That  is,  the  writer  of  the 
psalm  was  himself  conscious  that  its  real,  its  sub- 
lime fulfillment  was  yet  to  come  in  him  toward 
whom  the  hope,  the  expectation,  the  desire  of 
God's  ancient  people  was  ever  turning  with  devout 
longing.)  "  He  who  thus  suffered  and  prayed  and 
hoped  in  the  land  of  his  captivity  might  have  seen 
by  the  eye  of  faith  that  Another,  far  mightier  than 
he,  must  also  suffer  and  be  set  at  naught  of  the 
heathen  and  rejected  of  men,  that  through  him 
salvation  might  come  to  the  Gentiles." 

For    this    thought,   which    is    the    great    central 
thought  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  finds  expression  in 


32  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

the  midst  of  this  picture  of  extremest  suffering,  viz, 
that  the  sufferer  should  not  go  unheard  nor  his 
sufferings  be  disregarded.  "For  he  hath  not  de- 
spised nor  abhorred  the  affliction  of  the  afflicted, 
neither  hath  he  hid  his  face  from  him  ;  and  when 
he  cried  unto  him,  he  heard";  and  that  through 
that  suffering,  by  means  of  Christ's  strong  crying 
and  tears,  as  the  result  of  the  Saviour's  agony  and 
death  upon  the  cross,  the  salvation  of  God  should 
be  preached  successfully  to  all  nations  ;  or,  as  the 
psalm  has  it :  "All  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  re- 
member and  turn  unto  Jehovah,  and  all  the  families 
of  the  nations  shall  worship  before  thee.'" 

This  psalm,  then,  brings  before  us  the  great  fact 
that  the  Messiah,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  was  to 
be  a  conspicuous  sufferer,  was  to  be  scorned  and 
despised  by  men,  and  in  some  hour  of  bitter  con- 
sciousness was  to  be  forsaken  by  God.  The  second 
Psalm  sets  before  us  the  regal  character  of  Christ, 
his  exaltation  by  Jehovah  to  the  throne  of  power, 
his  coronation  by  his  resurrection,  his  irresistible 
might,  his  world-wide  triumph,  his  universal  do- 
minion. Its  prophetic  intimations,  for  the  most 
part,  still  await  their  fulfillment.  The  New  Testa- 
ment writers  were  stirred  by  the  same  strong  faith, 
and  repeated  the  same  clear  prophecies,  which 
every  revolution  of  the  earth  around  the  sun  or 
upon  its  axis  is  rolling  on  to  their  literal  and  glori- 
ous realization.     But  the  coming  fulfillment  of  these 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  33 

prophecies  and  our  faith  in  the  same  arc  dependent 
upon  the  past  fulfillment  of  other  prophecies  which 
pertained  to  his  earthly  manifestation,  his  humilia- 
tion, his  sufferings,  his  death  upon  the  cross.  "Be- 
cause he  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and 
humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient  unto  death, 
even  the  death  of  the  cross,  therefore  God  hath 
highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  the  name  which 
is  above  every  name."  There  is  no  slightest  hope 
that  the  prophecies  of  Christ's  blessed  and  univer- 
sal empire  will  ever  be  fulfilled  except  as  we  believe 
that  the  prophecies  of  his  humiliation  and  atoning 
death  have  already  been  fulfilled.  Why  do  we  be- 
lieve in  the  glad  triumph  of  Christianity?  Because 
we  believe  that  there  were  prophecies  pertaining  to 
the  sufferings  of  Christ  which  came  to  pass.  Both 
the  suffering  and  the  glory  are  matters  of  prophecy. 
The  cross  has  been,  therefore  we  are  confident  that 
the  crown  shall  be.  The  kingdom  and  the  glory 
rest  upon  the  same  prophetic  foundation  as  did  the 
humiliation  and  the  shame.  To  deny  the  prophe- 
cies in  reference  to  the  lowliness,  the  suffering,  the 
vicarious  sacrifice  of  Christ,  is  to  destroy  all  confi- 
dence in  the  coming  of  his  blessed  reign  and  the 
hope  which,  as  Christians,  we  cherish  in  the  prog- 
ress of  society  and  the  redemption  of  the  world. 

The  prophetic  picture  is  complete,  and  covers 
both  aspects  of  Christ's  person  and  condition — 
Christ    the    Sufferer    and    Christ    the    Conqueror, 

c 


34  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Christ  the  Victim  and  Christ  the  King,  the  human 
manifestation  and  the  divine  nature,  the  humiliation 
and  the  exaltation,  the  weakness  and  the  power, 
the  shame  and  the  glory,  the  cross  and  the  throne, 
the  pitiful  and  distressing  loneliness  and  the  ever- 
lasting fellowship  and  oneness  with  God. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  picture  of  the 
Messiah  portrayed  in  the  Old  Testament  seems 
especially  accurate  to  us  who  look  upon  it  in  the 
light  of  its  accepted  fulfillment.  The  Jews  of 
Christ's  time  had,  for  the  most  part,  come  to 
cherish  very  faulty  conceptions  of  the  person  and 
mission  of  their  promised  Messiah.  To  them  he 
was  to  appear  in  power  and  royal  state  and  estab- 
lish a  visible  kingdom.  The  lamentation  of  the 
two  disciples,  in  the  shadow  of  their  terrible  disap- 
pointment at  his  crucifixion,  voiced  the  sentiment 
of  the  people  generally.  "But  we  trusted  that  it 
had  been  he  which  should  have  redeemed  Israel." 
Their  interpretation  of  prophecy  was  determined 
in  no  small  degree  by  the  condition  of  the  nation 
as  a  subject  province  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The 
nature  of  the  Jewish  expectation  and  the  difficulty 
of  eradicating  it  from  the  minds  of  the  early  disci- 
ples prove  the  absurdity  of  the  mythical  theory  of 
the  origin  of  the  Gospels.  Doctor  Plumptre  has 
well  said,  in  the  "Boyle  Lectures"  for  1866  : 

A  Christ  cunningly  devised  to  meet  the  yearning  expecta- 
tions of  Israel  would  have  lived  a  far  other  life  and  died  a 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  35 

far  other  death  than  the  Christ  of  Nazareth.  In  whatever 
degree  we,  taught  by  facts,  may  recognize  in  prophecies  and 
foreshadowings  the  lineaments  of  a  suffering  Messiah,  in 
whatever  measure  he  may  have  learned  from  them  the  pat- 
tern to  which  he  must  conform  himself,  nothing  can  be 
clearer  than  that  such  an  ideal  was  infinitely  distant  from 
the  minds  of  the  Jewish  people.  Priests,  scribes,  peasants, 
publicans  would  have  alike  shrunk  from  it.  "Christ  cruci- 
fied "  was  "to  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block."  What  we  are 
required  to  believe  is,  that  they  accepted  a  mythus  because 
it  contradicted  their  expectations.  The  credo  quia  impossi- 
bile  is  forced  upon  us  where  we  should  least  have  looked 
for  it. 

As  has  been  said,  the  writer  of  this  psalm  gives 
to  us  the  distressing  picture  of  a  lonely  sufferer. 
It  may  be  to  some  extent  his  own  portrait ;  but  it 
gives  to  us  also,  centuries  in  advance,  the  easily 
recognized,  the  unmistakable  picture  of  the  scenes 
of  Calvary,  with  its  cruel  and  unsympathetic  and 
mocking  crowd,  and  its  helpless  and  forsaken  Man 
of  Sorrows.  It  undoubtedly  had  some  reference 
to  the  experience  of  the  psalmist,  though  what  we 
cannot  tell ;  but  he  looked  forward  to  another  Suf- 
ferer, who  should  give  reality  and  vividness,  pathos 
and  power,  to  his  words  and  fill  them  out  to  their 
minutest  detail. 

The  following  words  are  quoted  from  Neander  : 

Under  these  pangs  of  soul  and  body  he  sees  before  him 
the  Holy  One,  persecuted,  mocked,  proved  in  the  bitterest 
sufferings,  yet  steadfastly  trusting  in  God,  as  described  in 


36  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

the  twenty-second  Psalm  ;  and  the  idea,  as  delineated  by 
the  inspired  psalmist,  was  realized — not  only  in  itself,  but 
in  the  minutest  traits  of  its  delineation  also — in  him,  who 
stood  among  men  as  the  only  Holy  One,  not  only  exhibit- 
ing the  ideal  of  holiness  in  conflict  and  suffering,  but  tri- 
umphing through  them. 

The  seventh  verse,  "  All  they  that  see  me  laugh 
me  to  scorn  ;  they  shoot  out  the  lip,  they  shake  the 
head,"  finds  its  counterpart  in  the  narrative  of  the 
crucifixion,1  "And  they  that  passed  by  reviled  him, 
wagging  their  heads." 

On  these  words  Meyer  remarks,  thereby  con- 
firming the  quotation  and  endorsing  the  applica- 
tion, "  Not  as  a  sign  of  disapprobation,  but  according 
to  Ps.  22  :  8,  a  gesture  of  passionate  and  malignant 
joy." 

The  eighth  verse,  "  He  trusted  on  the  Lord  that 
he  would  deliver  him  ;  let  him  deliver  him,  seeing 
lie  delighted  in  him,"  is  repeated  almost  word  for 
word  in  Matt.  27  :  43,  and  though  quoted  by  the 
enemies  of  Christ,  is  an  unintentional  confirmation 
of  his  Messiahship. 

The  intense  thirst  described  in  the  fifteenth  verse 
is  actualized  in  the  agonizing  experience  of  our 
Saviour  as  described  in  John  19  :  28,  where  we  are 
told  that  Christ  had  actually  in  mind  this  prophetic 
passage  and  its  fulfillment,  "Jesus  knowing  that  all 
things  were  now  accomplished,  that  the  Scripture 
1  Matt.  27  :  39. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  T>7 

might  be  fulfilled,  saith,  I  thirst"  ;  and  also  another 
prophetic  passage,  found  in  Ps.  69  :  21,  "They  gave 
me  also  gall  for  my  meat ;  and  in  my  thirst  they 
gave  me  vinegar  to  drink."  Another  has  said  with 
clear  discrimination,  "  The  thirst  was  natural ;  the 
expression  of  it  was  another  intimation  of  his  desire 
to  fulfill  all  that  God  had  purposed." 
Godet  says : 

The  object  of  Jesus  in  saying,  '*  I  thirst,"  was  really  to 
give  occasion  to  the  accomplishment  of  this  last  unfulfilled 
incident  in  the  Messiah's  sufferings,  "They  gave  me  vine- 
gar to  drink."  .  .  Unquestionably  Jesus  had  for  a  long  time 
been  tormented  with  thirst.  This  was  one  of  the  most 
cruel  tortures  of  crucifixion.  But  he  might  have  been  able 
to  restrain,  as  he  had  done  up  till  now,  the  expression  of 
that  painful  sensation.  If  he  does  not  do  so,  it  is  that  the 
last  incident  of  the  humiliations  to  which  he  was  to  submit 
may  take  place  without  delay. 

The  specific  and  peculiar  prophecy  contained  in 
the  eighteenth  verse,  "  They  part  my  garments 
among  thou,  and  cast  lots  upon  my  vesture"  found 
an  accurate,  unconscious,  and  unmistakable  fulfill- 
ment, as  recorded  in  John  19  :  23,  24  :  "Then  the 
soldiers,  when  they  had  crucified  Jesus,  took  his 
garments,  and  made  four  parts,  to  every  soldier  a 
part  ;  and  also  his  coat  :  now  the  coat  was  without 
seam,  woven  from  the  top  throughout.  They  said 
therefore  among  themselves,  Let  us  not  rend  it,  but 
cast  lots  for  it,  whose  it  shall  be :  that  the  Scripture 


38  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

might  be  fulfilled,  which  saith,  They  parted  my 
raiment  among  them,  and  for  my  vesture  they  did 
cast  lots,"  an  incident  which  must  have  made  a 
profound  impression  upon  all  the  writers  of  the 
Gospels,  for  all  record  it  as  a  remarkable  iden- 
tification of  Christ  with  the  foretold  Messiah, 
Matthew  also  saying  distinctly,  "  That  it  might  be 
fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet." 

Godet,  calling  attention  to  the  remarkable  literal- 
ness  of  the  fulfillment  of  this  prophecy,  remarks  : 

It  is  a  great  humiliation  to  the  prisoner  to  see  his  gar- 
ments parted.  Thereafter  he  may  well  say  there  is  nothing 
left  him  but  to  die.  But  what  humiliation  greater  than  to 
see  lots  drawn  for  his  garments  and  so  to  become  like  a 
worthless  plaything.  David  wished  to  describe  these  two 
degrees,  and  John  remarks  that  in  the  sufferings  of  Jesus 
both  of  them  are  literally  reproduced  ;  not  that  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  prophecy  depended  on  this  detail,  but  it  came 
out  the  more  clearly  ;  and  that,  above  all,  because  every- 
thing was  done  by  the  instrumentality  of  the  rudest  and 
blindest  agents,  the  Roman  soldiers.  On  this  last  idea 
John  wishes  to  lay  stress  when  he  concludes  the  recital  of 
the  scene  with  the  words,  "These  things  therefore  the  sol- 
diers did."  The  Roman  governor  had  proclaimed  Jesus 
The  King  of  the  Jews  ;  the  Roman  soldiers,  without  mean- 
ing it,  indicated  him  to  be  the  true  David. 

In  like  manner  Farrar  says  : 

Little  dreaming  how  exactly  they  were  fulfilling  the  mystic 
intimations  of  olden  Jewish  prophecy,  they  proceeded  there- 
fore to  divide  between  them  the  garments  of  Jesus. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  39 

However  much  some  modern  interpreters  may- 
dispute  the  reality  of  prophecy  and  the  Messianic 
character  of  these  ancient  Scriptures,  the  writers 
of  the  New  Testament,  under  the  illumination  of 
the  divine  Spirit,  believed  in  them  fully  and  im- 
plicitly, and  found  in  these  apparently  accidental 
circumstances  the  beautiful  and  accurate  fulfillment 
of  specific  declarations  which  otherwise  would  have 
had  no  meaning  whatever,  and  the  verification  of 
Christ's  claims  as  the  long-promised  Messiah  and 
the  appointed  Redeemer  of  the  world.  Moreover, 
Christ  himself  is  represented  as  acting  in  the  light 
of  prophecy  and  consciously  in  the  minutest  de- 
tails bringing  to  pass  the  intimations  of  God's  an- 
cient servants.  The  mocking  crowd,  with  their 
wagging  heads,  the  quoted  words  of  derision,  the 
expression  of  extreme  and  unendurable  thirst,  the 
offered  vinegar,  the  seamless  tunic  over  which  the 
soldiers  gambled  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  what  are 
all  these  but  so  many  indisputable  evidences  that 
"holy  men  of  old  spake  as  they  were  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  that  their  words,  whether 
uttered  five  hundred  or  fifteen  hundred  years  be- 
fore Christ  and  his  crucifixion,  were  converged  and 
focused  in  the  fullness  of  time  in  burning  splendor 
in  the  life  and  sufferings  of  our  divine  Lord. 

Moreover,  if  the  translation  in  verse  sixteenth, 
"They  pierced  my  hands  and  my  feet,"  is  correct, 
and  according  to    Pcrowne   the  weight  of  critical 


4-0  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

authority  favors  it,  it  refers  distinctly  to  the  nailing 
of  Christ  to  the  uplifted  cross.  It  may  be  said  at 
this  point  that  the  Gospel  narratives  tally  so  closely 
with  this  psalm  that  later  Jewish  writers  charged 
the  Christian  penmen  with  shrewdly  and  dishon- 
estly constructing  their  records  with  this  Messianic 
scripture  in  mind  so  as  to  carry  conviction,  if  pos- 
sible, to  the  hearts  of  those  who  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge Jesus  as  the  Messiah. 

Strauss  goes  so  far  as  to  make  the  unwarranted 
suggestion  that  when  the  Messianic  pretensions  of 
Jesus  had  been  falsified  by  his  crucifixion,  the  early 
Christians  searched  the  Old  Testament  for  the  con- 
ception of  a  suffering  Saviour,  and  then  created 
the  incidents  of  the  crucifixion  to  harmonize  with 
their  interpretation  of  such  passages  as  Ps.  22  and 
Ps.  69. 

It  should  be  noticed  that  at  the  twenty-second 
verse  the  tone  of  the  psalm  is  suddenly  changed. 
It  is  not  now  the  cry  of  suffering  and  distress,  but 
the  shout  of  glad  confidence  and  the  assurance  of 
victory  and  universal  blessing.  It  is  as  if  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  sufferer  were  now  at  an  end,  and  not 
only  so,  but  as  if  they  had  accomplished  their  pur- 
pose, and  through  them  world-wide  peace  and  pros- 
perity had  been  secured,  and  the  nations  of  the 
earth  had  been  brought  back  to  the  worship  and 
service  of  the  one  true  God.  The  transition  is 
deeply  significant  and  the  language  is  most  remark- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  4 1 

able.  Another  has  said:  "The  sufferer,  now  de- 
livered, sees  that  both  his  agonies  and  his  release 
will  be  productive  of  perfect  satisfaction  to  himself, 
of  eternal  benefit  to  his  brethren  of  mankind,  and 
of  the  highest  glory  to  God."  We  are  reminded 
of  those  other  inspired  words,  "  He  shall  see  of  the 
travail  of  his  soul,  and  shall  be  satisfied."  l 

Moreover,  the  twenty-second  verse  is  quoted  by 
the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 2  as  re- 
ferring distinctly  to  Christ  and  his  intimate  re- 
lation to  his  people  :  "  /  will  declare  thy  name 
unto  my  brethren,  in  the  midst  of  the  church  will 
I  praise  thee."  This  frequent  reference  in  the  New 
Testament  of  the  language  of  the  psalm  to  Christ, 
the  peculiar  severity  and  vicarious  nature  of  the 
sufferings  depicted,  and  the  universal  spiritual  re- 
sults of  those  sufferings  determine  beyond  question 
the  Messianic  character  of  this  psalm.  Of  what 
other  sufferer,  however  exalted  his  rank  or  how- 
ever extreme  his  sufferings,  can  it  be  asserted,  with 
any  degree  of  fitness  or  truthfulness,  that  as  a  con- 
sequence of  his  suffering,  "All  the  ends  of  the 
world  shall  remember  and  turn  unto  Jehovah,  and 
all  the  families  of  the  nations  shall  worship  before 
thee.  For  Jehovah' s  is  the  kingdom  ;  and  he  rulcth 
among  the  nations." 

Another  has  said  : 

1  Isa.  53  :  II.  2  2  :  12. 


42  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

It  will  always  be  difficult  to  demonstrate  that  some  un- 
known righteous  man  in  the  Old  Testament  could  hope,  as 
the  author  of  Ps.  22  does,  that  the  effect  of  his  deliver- 
ance would  be  the  conversion  of  Gentile  peoples  and  the 
establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  God  to  the  very  ends  of 
the  earth. 

The  language  of  Krummacher1  is  so  just  and 
sympathetic  in  its  interpretation  of  this  psalm  that 
it  is  worthy  of  extended  quotation  : 

The  portrait  of  a  guiltless  sufferer  gradually  increases  to 
a  sublimity  which  has  found  its  perfect  antitype  in  the  holy 
Jesus.  In  the  picture,  features  appear  of  which  we  meet 
with  only  slight  traces  in  David' s  history,  and  which,  there- 
fore, call  upon  us  to  seek  their  literal  fulfillment  elsewhere. 
For  the  sufferer  in  the  Psalms  is  not  only  represented  as  the 
offscouring  of  the  whole  world,  not  only  do  those  who  see 
him  say  to  him,  "He  trusted  in  the  Lord  that  he  would 
deliver  him  ;  let  him  deliver  him,  seeing  that  he  delighted 
in  him,"  not  only  must  he  agonizingly  exclaim,  "I  am 
poured  out  like  water  ;  all  my  bones  are  out  of  joint,  and 
thou  hast  brought  me  into  the  dust  of  death,"  but  he  must 
also  see  what  David  never  experienced,  that  his  hands  and 
feet  were  pierced,  and  that  his  enemies  parted  his  garments 
among  them  and  cast  lots  upon  his  vesture. 

Besides  this,  his  passion  ends  in  such  a  manner  as  no 
other  man' s  sufferings  ;  for  a  glorious  crown  of  victory  at 
length  adorns  the  head  of  this  tried  and  faithful  One.  Yea, 
he  receives  the  testimony  that  his  sufferings  shall  result  in 
nothing  short  of  the  salvation  of  the  world,  and  the  restora- 
tion, enlightening,  and  beautifying  of  the  Gentiles.  Who 
is  so  blind  as  not  to  perceive  that  this  just  man,  who  is  so 

1  "The  Suffering  Saviour,"  pp.  414,  415. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  43 

sorely  tried,  and  who  comes  forth  so  triumphantly  from  the 
conflict,  as  depicted  by  the  Spirit  in  this  twenty-second 
Psalm,  is  no  other  than  the  promised  Messiah  in  the  per- 
son of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ?  This  is  beyond  a  doubt,  even 
if  the  New  Testament  had  not  expressly  given  that  psalm 
such  an  application.  Even  one  of  the  champions  of 
modern  infidelity,  prophesying  like  Balaam,  has  called  the 
twenty-second  Psalm  "the  program  of  the  crucifixion  of 
Christ"  ;  and  another,  against  his  will,  is  carried  away  to 
use  these  words  :  "  One  might  almost  think  a  Christian  had 
written  this  psalm." 

I  have  reserved  for  consideration  last  the  re- 
markable language  of  the  first  verse  of  the  psalm, 
viz  :  "  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
mc?"  language  which  Christ  solemnly  repeated 
when  suffering  the  agony  of  the  cross.  The  psalm- 
ist may  have  found  some  occasion  or  occasions  in 
his  checkered  life,  when  it  seemed  to  him  that  God 
had  forgotten  him,  just  as  in  the  intervening  ages, 
and  possibly  to-day,  there  may  be  some  of  God's 
children,  who  in  the  midst  of  life's  extremities  and 
burdens  are  tempted  to  feel  that  God  has  utterly 
withdrawn  from  them  his  presence  and  sympathy 
and  aid,  and  abandoned  them  to  the  unpitying 
power  of  adverse  circumstances  or  to  the  cruel  tor- 
ture of  a  relentless  fate. 

But  that  Christ,  the  holy  Son  of  God,  should 
have  used  these  words,  "  My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  is  doubly  significant,  as 
bearing  conclusively  upon  the  Messianic  character 


44  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

of  the  psalm,  and  as  revealing  also  the  nature,  pur- 
pose, and  extent  of  the  suffering  which  our  Saviour 
endured  in  our  behalf. 

Another  has  beautifully  said,  it  is  "not  the  why 
of  impatience  or  despair,  not  the  sinful  question- 
ing of  one  whose  heart  rebels  against  his  chasten- 
ing, but  rather  the  cry  of  a  lost  child,  who  cannot 
understand  why  his  father  has  left  him,  and  who 
longs  to  see  his  father's  face  again.  .  .  What  these 
words  were  in  the  lips  of  the  Holy  One  of  God, 
heart  of  man  may  not  conceive.  For  a  moment, 
in  that  last  agony,  the  Perfect  Man  was  alone,  alone 
with  the  sin  of  the  world." 

Ah,  is  not  that  the  secret  of  the  exclamation  which 
burst  from  the  Saviour's  lips  ?  Innocence  forsaken 
by  God  !  Spotless  purity  abandoned  by  the  Spirit 
of  the  All-Holy  !  Absolute  sinlessness  and  unim- 
peachable moral  excellence  under  the  displeasure 
of  the  Almighty  !  How  can  we  account  for  this 
abnormal  and  distressing  fact,  except  upon  the 
basis  of  the  revealed  truth — Christ's  mysterious 
fellowship  with  sin  in  his  suffering  and  death?  At 
that  supreme  moment  of  his  mission  on  earth  he 
felt  the  awful  shadow  of  sin's  curse,  which  is  eter- 
nal separation  from  God.  "  He  was  made  to  be 
sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin."  "He  bore  our  sins 
in  his  own  body  on  the  tree."  Christ  in  that  hour 
of  extremest  suffering  alone  with  sin,  your  sin  and 
my  sin  and  the  sin  of  the  world  !     Who  can  com- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  45 

prehend  the  meaning  of  the  words,  "  My  God,  my 
God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  "  Oh,  unutter- 
able agony  !     Oh,  unspeakable  grace  ! 

The  mythical  theory  of  Strauss,  that  these  words 
of  the  psalm  were,  after  the  crucifixion,  put  into 
the  lips  of  Christ,  has  no  rational  basis.  Neither 
is  the  view  of  Paulus,  Schleiermacher,  and  Hase 
satisfactory,  or  in  harmony  with  the  distinctively 
prophetic  character  of  other  language  in  the  psalm, 
viz,  that  these  words  used  by  Christ  were  simply  a 
"  lamentation  expressed  in  a  scriptural  statement, 
showing  that  he  had  the  whole  psalm,  with  its  sub- 
lime conclusion,  before  his  mind."  The  words  were 
obviously  Messianic  as  uttered  by  the  psalmist,  and 
pointed  forward  to  a  definite  experience  of  sorrow 
which  the  Redeemer  of  mankind  was  to  have, 
when  he  took  upon  himself  human  guilt  in  that 
final  act  of  expiation.  We  may  not  measure  the 
abyss  of  the  anguish,  but  we  are  not  left  in  doubt 
as  to  its  cause.  And  this  spiritual  suffering  (not 
the  thirst  or  the  pain  from  the  bodily  wounds)  was 
the  supreme  thought  of  the  prophecy  as  it  was  the 
supreme  significance  of  the  crucifixion.  The  uni- 
form evangelical  interpretation  has  been  well  ex- 
pressed by  Dr.  James  Stalker  in  these  words  : 

Not  only  did  the  world's  sin  thus  press  itself  on  his  lov- 
ing and  holy  soul  in  those  near  him  ;  it  came  from  afar, 
from  the  past,  the  distant,  and  the  future,  and  met  on  him. 
He  was  bearing  the  sin  of  the  world  ;  and  the  consuming 


46  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

fire  of  God's  nature,  which  is  the  reverse  side  of  the  light 
of  his  holiness  and  love,  flamed  forth  against  him,  to 
scorch  it  away.  .  .  These  were  the  sufferings  which  made 
the  cross  appalling.  .  .  He  hung  long  silent  amidst  the 
darkness  without  and  the  darkness  within,  till  at  length,  out 
of  the  depths  of  an  anguish  which  human  thought  will 
never  fathom,  there  issued  the  cry,  "My  God,  my  God, 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  It  was  the  moment  when 
the  soul  of  the  Sufferer  touched  the  very  bottom  of  his 
misery. 

It  was  the  moment  too,  when  the  cross  of  Christ 
came  into  relation  to  the  guilt  and  need  of  the 
whole  race.  Therefore  let  the  faith,  the  penitence, 
the  love  of  every  human  heart  find  expression  in 
the  famous  hymn  of  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  : 

O  sacred  Head,  now  wounded, 

With  grief  and  shame  weighed  down, 
Now  scornfully  surrounded 

With  thorns,  thine  only  crown  ; 
O  sacred  Head,  what  glory, 

What  bliss,  till  now  was  thine  ! 
Yet,  though  despised  and  gory, 

I  joy  to  call  thee  mine. 

What  thou,  my  Lord,  hast  suffered 

Was  all  for  sinners'  gain  ; 
Mine,  mine  was  the  transgression, 

But  thine  the  deadly  pain  ; 
Lo,  here  I  fall,  my  Saviour  ! 

'Tis  I  deserved  thy  place  ; 
Look  on  me  with  thy  favor, 

Vouchsafe  to  me  thy  grace. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  47 

What  language  shall  I  borrow 

To  thank  thee,  dearest  Friend, 
For  this,  thy  dying  sorrow, 

Thy  pity  without  end  ? 
O  make  me  thine  forever  ; 

And  should  I  fainting  be, 
Lord,  let  me  never,  never, 

Outlive  my  love  to  thee. 


CHAPTER  III 
PSALM  CX 


Ill 

This  psalm,  though  one  of  the  short- 
Psalm  CX  .  -  . , b  .  ,    ,  , 
est,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 

of  the  inspired  hymns  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures.  It 
is  a  poem  of  wonderful  beauty  and  of  striking 
imagery,  and  bears  conspicuously  upon  its  surface 
its  Messianic  application.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  be  a 
prophecy  of  the  person  and  office  of  Christ,  and 
the  glory  and  triumph  of  his  kingdom,  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  Some  psalms  have  in  them  scattered 
verses  which  refer  to  the  coming  Messiah,  to  some 
aspect  of  his  character,  some  event  in  his  life,  or 
some  characteristic  of  his  reign.  This  psalm  is  en- 
tirely referable  to  Christ.  Some  psalms  have,  first, 
a  local  and  contemporary  application,  and  then  a 
fuller  and  prophetic  application  to  One  who  was  to 
come.  This  psalm  seems  to  refer  clearly,  dis- 
tinctly, and  only  to  the  future  Priest-King  of  the 
Jewish  nation  and  of  the  world. 

This  exclusive  reference  of  the  psalm  is  advo- 
cated by  Oehler  and  others.     Oehler  says  : 

In  Ps.  2,  45,  72,  no,  a  royal  personage  is  depicted,  to 
whom  neither  David  nor  Solomon  corresponds,  but  only  he 
of  whom  they  were  types.  There  are  two  schools  of  inter- 
pretation with   regard   to   these  psalms.     The  one,    repre- 

5i 


52  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

sented  by  Calvin,  holds  that,  in  the  first  instance,  they  refer 
to  a  king  of  Israel,  but  that  the  ideal  predicates  affirmed  of 
him  refer  to  Christ.  The  other  school  holds  that  the 
psalmist  had  before  him  the  ideal  theocratic  king,  and  so 
spoke  directly  of  Christ.  This  last  view  cannot  be  set  aside 
by  the  objection  that  the  psalmist  could  not  sing  of  a  future 
king,  for  he  does  sing  of  a  future  glory  of  the  holy  city 
(Ps.  87),  and  the  future  advent  of  Jehovah  to  establish  his 
kingdom  (Ps.  96-98).  This  view  seems  to  be  decidedly 
the  more  natural  in  Ps.  2,  72,  no. 

This  psalm  resembles  the  second  Psalm  in  its 
ascription  to  Christ  of  regal  rank  and  divine  charac- 
ter, of  irresistible  power  and  world-wide  victory ; 
but  it  is  differentiated  from  it  in  some  important 
particulars.  Not  only  is  Christ's  kingly  and  divine 
character  proclaimed  in  it,  but  also  his  priestly  or 
sacerdotal  character.  The  psalm  consists  of  two 
parts.  The  first  part  begins  with  an  affirmation  of 
Christ's  universal  sovereignty,  and  the  second  part 
begins  with  an  affirmation,  confirmed  by  a  solemn 
oath,  that  Christ  was  to  be  invested  in  perpetuity 
with  the  functions  of  a  universal  priesthood.  More- 
over, this  psalm  has  the  positive  acknowledgment  of 
Christ,  both  as  to  its  Davidic  authprship  and  its 
application  to  himself,  and  also  that  David,  when 
he  composed  the  psalm,  was  under  the  distinct 
guidance  and  inspiration  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  In 
Mark  12  :  35-37  we  are  told  that  "Jesus  answered 
and  said,  while  he  taught  in  the  temple,  How  say 
the  scribes  that  Christ  is  the  son  of  David  ?     For 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  S3 

David  himself  said  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  The  Lord 
said  to  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand,  till  I 
make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool.  David  therefore 
himself  calleth  him  Lord  ;  and  whence  is  he  then 
his  son?"  The  scribes  acknowledged  only  the 
human  nature  and  descent  of  the  Messiah,  that  he 
was  a  descendant  of  David.  Christ  proved  to 
them,  out  of  their  own  Scriptures,  that  David 
himself  acknowledged  his  divinity,  and  that  he  did 
it  when  speaking  under  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  His  quotation  of  the  first  verse  of  this 
psalm,  and  the  manner  of  it,  obviously  claims 
its  application  to  himself  as  the  Messiah,  and  is 
evidence  of  his  belief  that  the  psalm  was  written 
by  David,  whose  name  is  attached  to  it,  and  to 
whom  it  has  been  almost  universally  ascribed,  and 
also  that  the  psalmist  in  making  these  revelations, 
and  similar  ones,  about  the  Messiah  who  was  to 
come,  was  aided  and  controlled  by  the  Spirit  of 
God.  The  language  is  peculiarly  plain  and  posi- 
tive. "  David  himself  said  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  The 
Lord  said  to  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand." 
Any  other  interpretation  seems  to  be  a  palpable 
contradiction  of  the  meaning  of  Christ's  words,  and 
a  clear  violation  of  all  the  laws  of  language,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  reflection  upon  Christ's  wisdom  or 
moral  sincerity  or  upon  both. 

Dr.   W.   N.  Clarke  states  the   case  clearly  and 
fairly,  when  he  says,  in  his  "  Commentary  on  Mark," 


54  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

concerning  this  passage  (Ps.  1 10  :  I,  quoted  exactly 
from  the  Septuagint)  : 

Jesus  here  affirms  (i)  that  David  was  the  author  of  it 
His  use  of  it  turns  upon  this  fact  ;  and  thus  he  assents  to 
the  title  that  stands  above  the  psalm,  both  in  the  Hebrew 
and  the  Septuagint.  (2)  That  David  made  this  utterance 
"  in  the  Holy  Spirit."  This  can  mean  only  that  the  utter- 
ance was  not  solely  David' s  own,  but  was  made  under  an 
inspiration  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  No  theory  of  inspiration 
is  given  here,  but  the  fact  is  expressly  stated.  (3)  That  the 
passage  was  Messianic.  Not  for  himself,1  any  more  than 
of  himself2  did  David  say  this.  It  was  one  of  those  for- 
ward-looking utterances  that  found  their  full  meaning  only 
in  him  who  was  to  come. 

The  importance  of  this  psalm  and  the  influence 
of  Christ's  interpretation  of  it  upon  the  Christology 
of  the  early  church  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 
Doctor  Clarke  says  further  : 

The  passage,  thus  brought  by  the  Lord  himself  to  its  ap- 
plication, took  a  powerful  hold  upon  the  faith  and  imagina- 
tion of  the  church,  and  entered  into  the  formation  of  doc- 
trine.3 Here,  however,  the  argument  of  Jesus  turns  on  the 
word  Lord,  and  implies  [asserts]  the  divinity  of  the  Mes- 
siah. David's  son  would  be  a  man  ;  but  this  Son  of  David 
was  to  be  one  whom  David  could  also  call  his  Lord.  More 
than  man,  therefore,  he  must  be.  This  is  a  warning  that 
the  scribes  have  their  ideas  of  the  Messiah  still  to  mend  and 
to  conform  to  the  teaching  of  the  Scriptures. 

1  I  Peter  I  :  12.  2  2  Peter  I  :  21. 

3  See  Acts  2  :  34-36 ;  I  Cor.  15  :  25  ;  Eph.  I  :  20 ;  Col.  3:1; 
Heb.  1:3;  8:1;  10  :  12 ;   12:2;  I  Peter  3  :  22. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  55 

If  there  were  no  other  reference  to  this  psalm  in 
the  New  Testament  than  this  one  by  Christ,  which 
is  recorded  in  each  of  the  first  three  Gospels,  this 
one  reference  would  be  enough  to  establish  the  in- 
spired character  of  the  writing  and  its  true  Messi- 
anic import.  But  there  is  no  psalm  that  is  referred 
to  so  often  in  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  in 
proportion  to  its  length  as  this. 

The  first  verse  :  "  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord, 
Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand,  until  I  make  thine  enemies 
thy  footstool,''  is  quoted  by  Peter  in  his  great 
sermon  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  a  sermon  which 
carried  conviction  to  the  minds  of  three  thousand 
hearers.  The  aim  of  Peter's  discourse  was  two-fold  : 
first,  to  show  that  the  great  miracle  of  Pentecost 
was  the  fulfillment  of  specific  prophecy;  and 
secondly,  to  prove  that  Jesus  who  had  just  been 
put  to  death,  was  the  foretold  Messiah.  It  was 
addressed  mainly  to  "the  men  of  Judea,"  and  was 
an  appeal  to  their  own  Scriptures,  to  prove  that 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  "approved  of  God  by 
miracles  and  wonders  and  signs,"  had  been  cruci- 
fied and  raised  from  the  dead  according  to  the 
well-known  teachings  of  their  own  inspired  proph- 
ets, prophetic  teachings  which  could  not  have  been 
in  any  sense  fulfilled  in  the  writers  themselves. 
"  For  David  is  not  ascended  into  the  heavens  "  ; 
but  on  the  contrary,  disclaiming  all  personal  refer- 
ence to  himself  in   his  words,  and  distinctly  deter- 


56  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

mining  their  application,  "  he  saith  himself,  The 
Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  at  my  right 
hand,  until  I  make  thy  foes  thy  footstool."  Peter's 
argument  is  based  upon  David's  confession. 
"Therefore  let  all  the  house  of  Israel  know  as- 
suredly, that  God  hath  made  this  same  Jesus,  whom 
ye  have  crucified,  both  Lord  and  Christ." 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  inspired  apostle's  inter- 
pretation of  the  meaning  and  intent  of  the  words 
of  the  inspired  psalmist,  whom  he  calls  "  the  patri- 
arch David,"  and  also  his  own  positive  declaration 
that  the  ancient  prophecy  was  fulfilled,  when  God 
raised  Jesus  from  the  dead.  Then  he  was  "de- 
clared to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,"  as  Paul 
says,  and  exalted  to  God's  right  hand,  that  is,  to 
a  share  in  the  government  of  the  universe,  in  the 
supreme  executive  functions  of  the  Almighty,  until 
all  enemies  of  Christ  and  truth  and  righteousness 
shall  be  brought  into  subjection  to  him.  It  is  evi- 
dent from  the  language  of  the  psalm,  and  also  from 
the  interpretation  of  Peter,  that  a  permanent  dig- 
nity and  glory  is  here  meant,  a  dignity  and  glory 
not  less  than  that  of  God  himself.  The  same  truth 
is  affirmed  by  Paul x  in  similar  language,  "  God  also 
hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name 
which  is  above  every  name,  that  at  the  name  of 
Jesus  every  knee  should   bow,  and   every  tongue 

1  Phil.  2:9-11. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  57 

confess  that  he  is  Lord  [not  to  the  disparagement 
or  dishonor  but],  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father.'' 
Perowne  says  : 

If,  then,  this  be  the  meaning,  if  the  solemn  address, 
"Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand,"  is  equivalent  to  saying,  "  Be 
thou  associated  with  me  in  my  kingly  dignity,  in  my  power 
and  universal  dominion,"  then  the  best  comment  on  the 
passage  is  to  be  found,  as  even  some  of  the  Jewish  inter- 
preters have  seen,  in  Dan.  7  :  1 3,  14,  where  "one  like  the 
Son  of  man  comes  with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  is 
brought  unto  the  Ancient  of  days.  .  .  and  there  is  given  him 
dominion,  and  glory,  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  people, 
nations,  and  languages  should  serve  him." 

The  two  passages,  the  one  from  the  psalm  and  the 
one  from  Daniel,  are  in  fact  combined  by  our  Lord 
himself,  when  standing  before  the  high  priest  he 
says  :  "  Hereafter  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sit- 
ting on  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  coming  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven." 

This  language  of  the  psalm,  expressive  of  the 
exalted  dignity  and  prospective  universal  triumph 
of  the  Messiah,  is  again  and  again  used  in  reference 
to  Jesus  in  the  New  Testament.  In  Ephesians1 
it  is  written  :  "  According  to  the  working  of  his 
mighty  power,  which  he  wrought  in  Christ,  when 
he  raised  him  from  the  dead,  and  set  him  at  his 
own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly  places,  far  above 
all  principality,  and  power,  and  might,  and  domin- 

1 1 :  20-23. 


58  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

ion,  and  every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in 
this  world,  but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come  :  and 
hath  put  all  things  under  his  feet,  and  gave  him  to 
be  the  head  over  all  things  to  the  church,"  that  is, 
even  him  who  is  thus  exalted  and  glorified  above 
all  beings  in  all  worlds,  hath  the  Father,  in  his 
boundless  mercy,  given  to  be  the  head  of  the  church. 

In  Hebrews1  we  are  told  that  Christ  "  for  the  joy 
that  was  set  before  him,  endured  the  cross,  despis- 
ing the  shame,  and  is  set  down  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  throne  of  God,"  where  the  language  of  the 
psalm  is  plainly  used. 

In  i  Cor.  15  :  25  we  are  told  that  Christ  "must 
reign,  until  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet ; 
the  last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed  is  death," 
language  which  is  borrowed  from  David's  psalm  in 
reference  to  the  universal  supremacy  of  Christ 
among  men,  and  then  is  expanded  to  include,  in 
addition  to  all  human  foes  and  human  opposition, 
those  spiritual  enemies,  which  array  themselves 
against  the  peace  of  God's  children  and  the  holy 
tranquillity  of  their  life,  "the  last  of  which  is 
death." 

And  then  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  the  writer,  in  showing  the  supreme 
excellence  of  the  Christian  dispensation  over  the 
past,  and  the  vast  superiority  of  Christ,  whom  he 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  59 

calls  Son  of  God,  maker  of  all  worlds,  brightness 
of  the  divine  glory  and  the  express  image  of  God's 
person,  over  all  the  angelic  order  of  beings,  ex- 
claims triumphantly  in  concluding  his  argument : 
"  But  to  which  of  the  angels  said  he  at  any  time, 
Sit  on  my  right  hand,  until  I  make  thine  enemies 
thy  footstool,'  "  as  God  did  say  to  Jesus  the  Mes- 
siah, as  you  will  find  recorded  in  the  one  hundred 
and  tenth  Psalm  of  David  ?  This  is  the  culminat- 
ing point  of  the  writer's  argument,  and  its  force 
rests  upon  the  universal  acknowledgment  of  his 
hearers  that  this  psalm  referred  to  the  Messiah,  and 
that  there  was  only  one  being  in  all  the  universe 
so  high,  so  exalted,  so  powerful,  so  divine,  that 
its  language  was  applicable  to  him,  and  that  being 
was  David's  Son  and  David's  Lord. 

But  not  only  is  that  part  of  the  psalm  which 
declares  the  regal  dignity  of  the  Messiah  quoted 
in  the  New  Testament  by  Christ  and  Peter  and 
Paul  as  applicable  to  our  Lord,  but  in  like  manner, 
that  part  which  declares  his  priestly  character  and 
office  is  quoted  several  times  in  the  fifth,  sixth,  and 
seventh  chapters  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
and  forms  a  main  point  in  the  argument  of  the 
writer  that  Christ's  priesthood  was  superior  to  the 
Aaronic  priesthood,  and  his  sacrifice  was  of  infi- 
nitely more  value  than  all  the  sacrifices  of  the  past, 
both  in  its  intrinsic  efficacy  and  as  being  the  end 
of  the  whole  sacrificial  system,  begun  by  Abel  and 


60  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

continued  down  through  all  the  intervening  cen- 
turies. This  Epistle  was  written  to  the  Hebrews, 
and  presents  a  thoughtful  and  irresistible  argument 
based  upon  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  that  their 
priests  and  their  offerings  found  their  highest  mean- 
ing and  fulfillment  in  him  who  was  the  great  High 
Priest  of  the  new  dispensation  and  offered  himself 
as  the  one  sufficient  and  acceptable  sacrifice  for 
the  sins  of  the  whole  world. 

The  inspired  writer,  in  proving  that  the  priest- 
hood of  Christ  was  far  loftier  and  more  glorious 
than  any  that  had  preceded  it,  referred  to  the 
priesthood  of  that  remarkable  man  who  suddenly 
and  mysteriously  flashed  into  view  in  the  life  of 
their  great  patriarch  Abraham,  and  about  whom 
and  whose  priesthood  the  Jews  acknowledged  that 
there  was  much  that  was  unique  and  sublime,  and 
repeating  over  and  over  again  the  declaration  of 
their  own  inspired  psalm  reminded  the  Jews  that 
Melchizedek  was  but  a  type  of  the  Messiah,  and 
that  Jesus  was  the  one  to  whom  both  the  type  and 
the  prophetic  utterance  pointed.  In  the  fifth  chap- 
ter (ver.  4-6)  the  writer  affirms  that  Jesus  was  ap- 
pointed by  God  to  both  the  kingly  and  priestly 
office,  and  quotes  in  proof  of  the  first  the  language 
of  the  second  Psalm,  "  Thou  art  my  Son,  to-day 
have  I  begotten  thee,"  and  in  proof  of  the  second, 
the  language  of  the  one  hundred  and  tenth  Psalm  : 
"  Thou  art  a  priest  forever  after  the  order  of  Mel- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  6 1 

chizcdek."  In  the  sixth  chapter  (ver.  20)  the 
writer  quotes  the  same  words  again  as  having  refer- 
ence to  Jesus,  "  Whither  the  forerunner  is  for  us 
entered,  even  Jesus,  made  a  high  priest  for  ever 
after  the  order  of  Melchizedek,"  in  which  the 
entrance  of  Jesus  into  the  unseen  world  and  the 
perpetuity  of  his  intercessory  work  there  are  made 
the  basis  of  the  Christian's  immortal  hope.  And 
in  the  seventh  chapter  (ver.  1-3)  the  story  of  the 
meeting  between  Abraham  and  Melchizedek  is  told, 
and  some  of  the  remarkable  things  about  Mel- 
chizedek are  spoken  of,  viz,  his  two-fold  name, 
King  of  Righteousness  and  King  of  Peace,  his 
mysterious  origin  and  disappearance,  "without 
father,  without  mother,  without  pedigree,  having 
neither  beginning  of  days,  nor  end  of  life,"  and 
the  uninherited  and  untransmitted  nature  of  his 
priesthood,  and  then  it  is  significantly  added,  he 
was  "made  like  unto  the  Son  of  God"  ;  in  these 
points  of  resemblance  he,  more  than  the  Levitical 
priests,  was  the  true  type  of  the  Saviour  of  the 
world.  And  again,  twice  in  this  same  chapter  (ver. 
17,  21)  the  language  of  the  psalm  is  quoted  to 
show  the  superiority  of  Christ's  priesthood,  first, 
because  of  his  eternal  existence — it  was  "  not  after 
the  law  of  a  carnal  commandment,  but  after  the 
power  of  an  endless  life."  "Thou  art  a  priest  for 
ever"  and  secondly,  because  it  was  confirmed  and 
established  by  the  immutable  oath  of  the  Almighty, 


62  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

"  The  Lord  sware  and  will  not  repent,  Thou  art  a 
priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek." 

I  know  of  no  better  or  clearer  explanation  of 
the  thought  and  intent  of  the  psalmist  than  that 
given  by  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  : 

In  the  Psalms  an  inspired  writer  fixes  on  the  underived 
and  untransmitted  and  royal  priesthood  of  the  king  of 
Salem  as  the  highest  representation  of  the  priesthood  of  the 
Messiah  ;  and  just  as  the  kingship  of  a  Jewish  monarch  is 
sometimes  described,  in  the  same  book,  in  language  which 
passes,  by  imperceptible  gradations,  into  a  vision  of  royal 
grandeur  and  authority  which  no  earthly  prince  could  ever 
possess,  so  the  priesthood  of  Melchizedek  is  idealized  and 
exalted  until  it  transcends  in  dignity  and  permanence  the 
measures  of  a  merely  human  ministry.  "  Thou  art  a  priest 
for  ever  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek."  The  priesthood 
of  Melchizedek,  because  of  its  peculiar  characteristics,  is 
employed  to  denominate  the  everlasting  priesthood  of  the 
Messiah.  As  priest  of  the  Most  High  God,  the  Canaan- 
itish  king  stood  apart  from  all  the  consecrated  descendants 
of  Aaron,  deriving  his  dignity  from  none,  transmitting  it  to 
none  ;  his  royal  priesthood  was  the  noblest  visible  approach 
to  the  everlasting  priesthood  of  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  the 
psalmist  therefore  speaks  of  Christ  as  belonging  to  the  same 
priestly  order,  and  as  fulfilling  the  idea  which  in  the  priest- 
hood of  Melchizedek  was  represented  in  an  inferior  form. 

This  interpretation  is  abundantly  confirmed  by  the 
inspired  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  He 
saw  in  the  psalm  the  most  distinct  and  indisputable 
evidence  that  it  was  a  divinely  prophetic  utterance 
pointing  to  Jesus  Christ.      Christ  in  his  discussion 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  63 

with  the  Jews  had  had  occasion  to  speak  of  the  first 
part  of  the  psalm,  that  is,  the  ascription  of  regal  and 
divine  dignity,  as  referable  to  himself.  The  writer 
of  this  Epistle  declares  that  the  second  part,  that  is, 
the  bestowment  of  a  universal  and  eternal  priest- 
hood, is  also  applicable  to  Christ.  Indeed,  in  the 
tenth  chapter  (ver.  12,  13),  by  a  remarkable  com- 
bination of  words  he  claims  the  whole  psalm  as  per- 
taining to  Christ  and  foretelling  both  his  kingly  and 
his  priestly  characters,  and  the  relation  between 
them  :  "  I>ut  this  man,  after  he  had  offered  one 
sacrifice  for  sins  for  ever,  sat  down  on  the  right 
hand  of  God  ;  from  henceforth  expecting  till  his 
enemies  be  made  his  footstool." 

We  find,  then,  that  this  short  psalm  of  seven 
verses  is  referred  to  no  less  than  nineteen  times  in 
the  New  Testament  as  being  an  inspired  prophecy 
fulfilled  in  Jesus  Christ,  eleven  times  by  the  writer 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  whoever  he  may  be 
believed  to  have  been  ;  by  Paul  in  the  Epistles  to 
the  Romans,1  Ephesians,2  and  Colossians,3  and  in 
Eirst  Corinthians  ; 4  by  Peter  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost, and  also  in  his  First  Epistle,5  and  by  Christ 
himself  on  two  different  occasions.6  Such  an 
accumulation  of  testimony,  gathered  from  such 
sources,  ought  to  leave  students  of  the  Bible  in  no 
doubt  as  to  the  inspiration  and  Messianic  import  of 

1  8  :  34.  2  I  :  22.  83  :  I. 

4  15  :  25-27.  5  3  :  22.  6  Mark  12  :  36  ;   14  :  62. 


64  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

this  beautiful,  striking,  and  sublime  Hebrew  poem. 
Doctor  Alexander  says  :  "  The  repeated,  explicit, 
and  emphatic  application  of  this  psalm  in  the  New 
Testament  to  Jesus  Christ,  is  so  far  from  being 
arbitrary  or  at  variance  with  the  obvious  import 
of  the  psalm  itself,  that  any  other  application  is 
ridiculous." 

But  we  must  not  overlook  the  convincing  inter- 
nal evidences  that  this  is  the  character  and  import 
of  the  psalm.  I  have  said  that  it  bears  conspicu- 
ously upon  its  surface  its  Messianic  application. 

First,  David,  whom  we  believe,  on  the  authority 
of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  to  be  the  author  of  the 
psalm,  acknowledges  the  subject  of  the  psalm  to 
be  his  Lord.  "Jehovah  said  unto  my  Lord."  This 
he  would  not  have  done  if  he  had  looked  upon  him 
as  being  simply  his  natural  successor  to  the  throne. 

Secondly,  no  earthly  king  can  by  any  possible 
use  of  language,  or  by  any  stretch  of  the  imagina- 
tion, be  said  to  sit  on  the  right  hand  of  Jehovah, 
sharing  his  dignity  and  his  supreme  dominion. 
This  can  only  be  true  of  the  Son  of  God,  of  whom 
it  is  said  that  to  him  every  knee  shall  bow  and 
every  tongue  confess  that  he  is  Lord. 

A  third  internal  evidence  that  this  psalm  must 
refer  to  Christ,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  subject 
is  represented  as  a  king  and  at  the  same  time  as  a 
priest,  combining  in  one  person  the  regal  and  the 
sacerdotal  offices.      He  was  "  a  priest  for  ever  after 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  65 

the  order  of  Melchizedek,"  a  royal  priest  invested 
with  a  perpetual  priesthood.  No  Jewish  kings  were 
ever  priests  of  the  temple.  The  priestly  class  was 
a  distinct  class. 

And  a  fourth  internal  evidence  that  Christ,  and 
only  Christ,  can  be  the  subject  of  the  psalm,  is  that 
all  the  followers  of  this  Priest-King  are  represented 
as  themselves  priests,  clad  in  holy  vestments,  en- 
gaged in  a  spiritual  warfare,  and  that  his  victory  is 
to  be  complete  and  his  reign  universal.  This  pre- 
cludes the  possibility  of  any  other  application  ex- 
cept to  our  Saviour-King.  It  sets  before  us  the 
great  truth  of  the  universal  priesthood  of  all  be- 
lievers in  him,  and  also  the  ultimate  conquest  of 
the  world  in  his  name.  Such  a  spiritual  warfare 
and  such  a  glorious  triumph  are  the  things  which 
characterize  the  blessed  reign  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  on  earth,  and  pertain  only  to  his  kingdom. 

Professor  C.  H.  Toy  expresses  his  opinion  of  the 
non-Davidic  authorship  and  late  date  of  this  psalm 
and  the  authority  for  it  in  the  following  comment 
upon  the  fourth  verse  : 

But  what  differences  the  thought  of  the  psalm  from  that 
of  similar  ones  (as  Ps.  2,  45,  and  72)  is  the  statement  of 
our  verse,  that  the  king  was  at  the  same  time  a  priest.  This 
requires  us  to  look  for  a  period  in  Jewish  history  when  one 
man  united  in  his  person  the  royal  and  sacerdotal  offices, 
.  .  .  and  we  know  of  no  time  when  such  a  condition  of 
things  existed  but  the  Maccabean. 

E 


66  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

In  order  to  escape  the  purely  prophetic  character 
of  the  psalm,  and  its  direct  and  exclusive  reference 
to  the  Messiah,  Professor  Toy  is  compelled  to  bring 
the  date  of  the  psalm  down  to  the  Maccabean 
period,  and  thereby  disputes  the  testimony  of 
Christ  as  to  its  Davidic  authorship.  That  such 
was  Christ's  testimony  he  frankly  acknowledges. 
Speaking  of  Christ's  language,  he  says  :  "  Here 
David  cannot,  as  is  sometimes  the  case,  be  under- 
stood as  a  vague  name  for  the  book  of  Psalms,  but 
must  mean  the  individual  man  so-called."  In  other 
words,  Christ  believed  that  David  was  the  author  of 
the  psalm,  and  so  declared.  Therefore  his  ascrip- 
tion of  the  psalm  to  David  is  pronounced  by  Doctor 
Toy  to  be  untrue.  It  is  not  an  attempt  to  excuse 
Christ  on  the  ground  that  he  spoke  in  a  general, 
impersonal  way,  or  that  he  simply  acquiesced  in 
the  popular  belief  as  to  the  authorship  of  the  psalm  ; 
but  it  seems  to  be  a  plain  denial  of  the  veracity  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

Dr.  Franklin  Johnson  makes  answer  to  Doctor 

Toy's  view  as  follows  : 

Our  Lord  ascribes  the  psalm  to  David,  and  there  is  abso- 
lutely no  reason  to  call  the  Davidic  authorship  in  question. 
As  Alexander  has  said,  it  is  corroborated  by  the  internal 
character  of  the  composition,  its  laconic  energy,  its  martial 
tone,  its  triumphant  confidence,  and  its  resemblance  to 
other  undisputed  psalms  of  David.  The  effort  is  made  to 
bring  the  psalm  down  to  the  Maccabean  age,  not  on  the 
ground   that  its  language  is  of  this  later  age,  but  on  the 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  67 

ground  that  we  might  hope  to  find  a  Jewish  king  at  that 
time  who  was  also  a  priest,  to  whom  it  could  be  said  : 
"  Thou  art  a  priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek." 
.  .  .  The  Maccabees  were  indeed  priests  by  legal  descent  ; 
but  the  psalm  speaks  of  one  who  was  to  be  priest  not  by 
legal  descent,  not  after  the  order  of  Aaron,  but  by  extra  legal 
title,  "after  the  order  of  Melchizedek."  Besides,  of  whom 
but  of  Christ  could  it  be  said,  ' '  Thou  art  a  priest  for  ever ' '  ? 
Thus  on  every  ground  the  psalm  must  be  regarded  as  re- 
ferring to  our  Lord  directly. 

Edersheim,  speaking  of  the  use  which  Christ 
makes  of  this  psalm,  expresses  his  opinion  of  its 
authorship,  date,  and  Messianic  character  in  no  un- 
certain language.      He  says  : 

Without  addressing  any  one  in  particular,  he  put  to  them 
all  what  perhaps  was  the  most  familiar  subject  of  their  the- 
ology, that  of  the  descent  of  Messiah.  Whose  son  was  he  ? 
And  when  they  replied,  "The  Son  of  David,"  he  referred 
them  to  the  opening  words  of  Ps.  no,  in  which  David 
called  the  Messiah  "Lord."  The  argument  proceeded,  of 
course,  on  the  two-fold  supposition  that  the  psalm  was 
Davidic  and  that  it  was  Messianic.  Neither  of  these  state- 
ments would  have  been  questioned  by  the  ancient  synagogue. 
But  we  could  not  rest  satisfied  with  the  explanation  that  this 
sufficed  for  the  purpose  of  Christ's  argument  if  the  founda- 
tion on  which  it  rested  could  be  seriously  called  in  question. 
Such,  however,  is  not  the  case.  To  apply  Ps.  no,  verse 
by  verse,  and  consistently,  to  any  one  of  the  Maccabees, 
were  to  undertake  a  critical  task  which  only  a  series  of  un- 
natural explanations  of  the  language  could  render  possible. 
.  .  .  For  our  own  part,  we  are  content  to  rest  the  Messianic 
interpretation  on  the  obvious  and  natural  meaning  of  the 


68  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

words  taken  in  connection  with  the  general  teaching  of  the 
Old  Testament  about  the  Messiah,  on  the  undoubted  inter- 
pretation of  the  ancient  Jewish  synagogue,  on  the  authority 
of  Christ,  and  on  the  testimony  of  history. 

Wellhausen  assigns  still  another  reason  for  the* 
late  date  of  the  psalm,  which  needs  only  a  mo- 
ment's consideration.  He  says  :  "The  comparison 
with  Melchizedek  brings  the  date  of  the  psalm 
very  low,  because  the  narrative  in  Gen.  14  is  of 
extremely  late  origin."  Such  a  conclusion  will 
have  little  weight  with  those  who  utterly  disbelieve 
his  premise,  especially,  as  we  have  seen,  since  the 
whole  New  Testament  is  arrayed  against  it. 

The  analysis  of  the  psalm  is  briefly  as  follows  : 

In  the  first  two  verses  the  Messiah  is  represented 
as  taking  his  appointed  place  at  the  right  hand  of 
Jehovah,  and  clothed  with  power  to  subdue  all  na- 
tions to  himself.  Indeed,  he  is  acting  in  alliance 
with  Jehovah.  "Jehovah  shall  send  the  rod  of  thy 
strength  out  of  Zion"  ;  that  is,  the  scepter  of  thy 
might  and  thy  kingly  majesty,  Jehovah  shall  stretch 
it  forth  out  of  Zion. 

In  the  third  verse  the  Messiah  assembles  his 
hosts  for  the  strange  battle.  They  come  together 
under  his  banner  as  free-will  offerings,  and  are  as 
numerous  as  the  drops  of  morning  dew  and  as 
beautiful  as  they,  glistening  in  their  garments  of 
holiness.  It  is  an  exceedingly  poetic  figure.  Old 
men  and  matrons,  young  men  and  maidens,  appear 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  69 

filled  with  the  freshness  and  vigor  of  an  eternal 
youth,  and  all  clothed  with  the  shining  robes  of 
their  holy  and  priestly  character.  Milton  bor- 
rowed this  figure  in  his  description  of  the  angelic 

hosts 

Dewdrops  which  the  sun 
Impearls  on  every  leaf  and  every  flower. 

In  the  fourth  verse  the  Messiah  is  proclaimed  a 
perpetual  priest,  under  the  immutable  oath  of  the 
Almighty,  whose  might  is  that  of  sacrificial  love, 
who  is  to  bear  the  sins  of  the  world  and  to  make 
atonement  for  human  guilt ;  a  kingly  priest  and  a 
priestly  king,  the  only  supreme  Pontiff  of  peni- 
tent and  believing  souls.  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me." 

In  the  remaining  three  verses  of  the  psalm  the 
inspired  penman  gives  us  the  picture  of  the  final 
and  utter  conquest  of  all  enemies  of  the  Messiah. 
It  is  the  picture  of  a  battlefield  after  the  battle  is 
over.  Those  who  have  persisted  in  their  opposi- 
tion to  the  bitter  end,  and  have  not  bowed  to  the 
scepter  of  his  mercy,  are  made  to  fall  under  the 
rod  of  his  power.  Kings  and  leaders  are  unable 
to  stand  before  his  onward  march.  Those  who  are 
exalted  in  human  power  and  sinful  pride  are  made  r" 
to  bite  the  dust.  He  goes  from  victory  to  victory, 
pursuing  his  routed  enemies,  as  unexhausted  as  he  is 
irresistible,  ever  renewing  his  strength  as  the  war- 
rior who  drinks  of  the   brook   by  the  way,  and  is 


JO  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

perpetually  refreshed  for  the  conflict,  until  the  last 
trace  of  opposition  has  utterly  disappeared. 

The  central  and  emphatic  thought  of  the  psalm 
is  undoubtedly  the  two-fold  aspect  of  the  character 
and  mission  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  regal  dignity  and 
his  priestly  work.  To  fail  to  apprehend  either,  is 
to  miss  his  true  glory  and  his  saving  power.  On 
the  one  hand,  we  are  taught  that  Christ  "bore  our 
sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree,"  and  on  the 
other  hand,  that  "the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are 
to  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his 
Christ,  and  he  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever."  True 
faith  must  accept  Christ  as  the  propitiation  for  all 
sin,  and  must  place  heart  and  mind  and  being  at 
the  feet  of  Christ,  and  "crown  him  Lord  of  all." 
Both  conceptions  are  finely  presented  in  the  fa- 
miliar hymn  of  Doctor  Watts  : 

Now  to  the  Lord,  who  makes  us  know 

The  wonders  of  his  dying  love, 
Be  humble  honors  paid  below, 

And  strains  of  nobler  praise  above. 

'Twas  he  who  cleansed  our  foulest  sins, 
And  washed  us  in  his  precious  blood  ; 

'Tis  he  who  makes  us  priests  and  kings, 
And  brings  us  rebels  near  to  God. 

To  Jesus,  our  atoning  Priest, 

To  Jesus,  our  superior  King, 
Be  everlasting  power  confessed, 

Let  every  tongue  his  glory  sing. 


CHAPTER  IV 
PSALM  XVI 


IV 

This  psalm  gives  to  us  the  beautiful 
sa  m  expression    of  the    soul's   choice  of 

God  and  delight  in  him,  of  its  repudiation  of  all 
other  worship  and  devotion  to  his  service,  of  its 
comfort  and  satisfaction  with  the  lot  assigned  to  it 
by  divine  Providence,  and  its  perfect  rest  in  his 
promised  help  and  protection,  both  for  this  life 
and  the  life  to  come,  in  all  possible  emergencies,  in 
the  darkness  of  death  and  the  grave,  and  impliedly 
in  the  revealing  fires  of  the  judgment  day.  It  be- 
gins with  a  confession  of  weakness  and  need  : 
"Preserve  me,  0  God:  for  in  thee  do  I  put  my 
trust."  It  ends  with  a  shout  of  victory  :  "  Thou 
wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  shcol ;  neither  wilt  thou 
suffer  thine  Holy  One  to  see  corruption."  It  be- 
gins with  the  acknowledgment  of  God  as  the 
source  of  all  good  and  satisfaction  here  :  "  My  good 
is  naught  outside  of  thee;"  and  it  concludes  with 
the  confident  declaration  that  with  God  there  is 
the  consummation  of  all  joy  and  felicity,  which 
shall  be  without  end:  "In  thy  presence  is  fulness 
of  joy ;  at  thy  right  hand  there  are  pleasures  for 
evermore. ' ' 

Ewald  says  of  this  psalm: 

73 


74  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

There  is  hardly  to  be  found  a  clearer  or  more  beautiful 
declaration  concerning  the  whole  future  of  the  individual 
man  than  this.  For  the  calm  glow  of  the  highest  inner  ex- 
pansion and  serenity  here  lifts  the  poet  far  above  the  future 
and  its  menaces,  and  it  stands  clearly  before  his  sonl  that 
in  such  continued  life  of  the  spirit  in  God  there  is  nothing 
to  be  feared,  neither  pains  of  the  flesh,  his  body,  nor 
death ;  but  where  the  true  life  is,  there  also  the  body  must 
finally  come  to  its  rest  ;  because  deliverance  also  of  the 
soul  from  the  grave  is  possible  through  him  who  wills  only 
life. 

There  are  no  words  within  the  limits  of  the  Old 
Testament  that  remind  one  so  much  as  the  last 
verses  of  this  psalm  of  the  ringing  conclusion  of 
the  Apostle  Paul's  elaborate  argument  for  the  res- 
urrection in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  First  Corin- 
thians :  "For  this  corruptible  must  put  on  incor- 
ruption,  and  this  mortal  must  put  on  immortality. 
.  .  .  Thanks  be  to  God,  which  giveth  us  the  victory 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

It  is  sometimes  said,  it  seems  to  us  most  unac- 
countably, that  the  doctrine  of  immortality  is  not 
taught  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures.  It  is  in- 
credible that  a  people  which  had  been  preserved 
by  God  in  its  monotheistic  faith,  and  had  been  for 
centuries  under  the  tuition  of  his  prophets,  should 
be  an  exceptional  people  in  this  important  particu- 
lar. The  Egyptians  believed  in  it,  and  had  their 
conspicuous  symbols  of  their  faith.  Heathen  na- 
tions have   had   invariably  some   conception  of  the 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  75 

continued  existence  of  the  soul  after  death.  Cicero 
wrote  concerning  the  soul's  immortality.  Plato 
gave  special  prominence  to  the  doctrine  of  future 
rewards  and  punishments.  Buddhism  may  teach 
the  annihilation  of  personality,  but  not  of  life,  in 
its  mysterious  dogma  of  Nirvana.  Aboriginal  peo- 
ples, the  most  savage  and  degraded,  have  looked 
forward  to  the  happy  hunting  grounds  of  another 
sphere  of  existence.  And  all  men  everywhere 
have  felt  the  irresistible  longing  of  the  soul,  and 
the  uniform  prophecy  which  springs  spontaneously 
from  the  sense  of  the  incompleteness  of  its  present 
life.  Moreover,  to  say  that  God's  ancient  people 
did  not  believe  in  the  future  existence  of  the  soul, 
is  to  say  not  only  what  seems  utterly  incredible, 
but  what  seems  to  be  disproved  by  any  candid  in- 
terpretation of  their  sacred  books.  Modern  Jews, 
with  no  other  accepted  source  of  instruction  than 
the  Old  Testament,  have  believed  to  a  man  in  the 
doctrine  of  immortality.  It  is  not,  indeed,  taught 
so  fully,  and  with  such  clear  emphasis,  in  the  Old 
Testament  as  by  Him  who  said,  "lam  the  resur- 
rection and  the  life,"  and  "he  that  believeth  in  me, 
though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live,"  and  who  is 
declared  to  have  come  "that  he  might  bring  life 
and  immortality  to  light  in  his  gospel."  But  it  is 
nevertheless  taught  by  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures impliedly  from  beginning  to  end,  and  dis- 
tinctly and  clearly  in  instances  not  a  few. 


j6  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

It  is,  indeed,  true  as  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon 
says : 

It  is  because  the  prophets  stand  for  moralism  of  the  pro- 
foundest  and  most  august  order,  that  they  lay  foundations 
so  broad  and  strong  for  faith  in  the  permanence  of  the  hu- 
man soul.  They  involve  so  completely  human  existence 
and  interest  with  the  Divine  existence  and  interest  that  the 
idea  of  the  essentialness  of  humanity  to  God  becomes  al- 
most inevitable.  God  is  sublimely  implicated  in  the  his- 
tory, experience,  and  destiny  of  Israel,  and  ultimately  in 
the  life  of  the  race  ;  hence  that  life  must  go  on  while  God 
goes  on.  This  is  the  aspect  under  which  the  Hebrew 
prophets  view  the  life  of  their  people,  and  to  some  extent, 
the  life  of  the  world.  .  .  Human  existence  takes  on,  in  the 
estimation  of  these  seers,  a  character  so  vast  and  grand 
that  it  instantly  becomes  a  sublime  prophecy  on  its  own 
account. 

This  is  the  unequaled  merit  of  Hebrew  delineation  in  its 
highest  forms.  It  finds  the  reality  of  life,  discovers  the  char- 
acter of  human  existence,  and  makes  that  speak  for  itself. 
As  it  was  with  the  multitudes  before  whom  Jesus  stood 
when  Pilate  said,  "Behold  the  man  !"  so  it  is  with  sym- 
pathetic students,  when  the  Hebrew  prophet  says,  "Be- 
hold human  life  !"  It  may  be  outraged  by  condition,  dis- 
figured by  evil  treatment,  covered  with  the  emblems  of 
mockery,  and  crowned  with  shame,  yet  is  there  something 
divine  and  awe-inspiring  in  it,  and  its  silence  and  patience 
become  a  mute  but  mighty  prophecy  of  a  hereafter  of  honor 
and  power. 

If  there  were  no  distinct  enunciation  of  a  per- 
sonal immortality  in  the  earlier  books  of  the  Bible, 
the   doctrine  would    nevertheless   be   there   as   an 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  "/ "J 

atmosphere,  as  a  great  undertone,  as  an  implied 
and  inevitable  truth,  as  well  of  man  as  of  God. 
The  conception  of  human  life  given  there  is  too 
grand,  too  vast,  too  sublime,  to  find  its  only  sym- 
bols in  the  shadow,  the  flower,  and  the  motion  of 
a  weaver's  shuttle.  Under  the  moral  teachings  of 
these  old  prophets,  and  in  the  light  of  the  revealed 
interest  of  the  Almighty,  human  life  takes  on  far- 
reaching  proportions ;  the  soul  of  man  is  seen  to 
be  immortal  by  reason  of  its  sublime  worth  and 
dignity  and  relation  to  the  infinite  and  eternal 
Spirit. 

But  the  distinct  enunciations  of  immortality  are 
by  no  means  wanting  in  this  elder  revelation  to 
ears  that  are  willing  to  hear  them.  They  come  to 
us  in  the  tones  of  Job  and  Isaiah  and  David,  as 
well  as  in  the  translation  of  Elijah,  expressing  a 
clear  and  positive  faith  in  a  life  beyond  this,  in 
language  which  we  of  this  new  and  completer  dis- 
pensation do  not  hesitate  to  borrow  as  fully  ade- 
quate to  express  our  belief  in  the  continued  exist- 
ence of  the  soul.  As  the  function  of  the  prophet 
was  largely  ethical,  and  the  function  of  the  psalm- 
ist was  primarily  spiritual  and  religious,  we  should 
expect  to  find  the  latter  more  frequently  speaking 
of  the  devout  faith  of  the  soul  in  the  reality  and 
blessedness,  the  completeness  and  glory  of  the  life 
beyond  this.  And  such  is  the  fact,  as  seen  in  such 
precious  and  familiar  words  as  these:  "I  shall  be 


78  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

satisfied  when  I  awake  with  thy  likeness."  "Thou 
shalt  guide  me  with  thy  counsel  and  after  receive 
me  to  glory."  "  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in 
hell,  nor  suffer  thy  Holy  One  to  see  corruption. 
Thou  wilt  shew  me  the  path  of  life:  in  thy  pres- 
ence is  fulness  of  joy  ;  at  thy  right  hand  tliere  are 
pleasures  for  evermore." 

The  last  verses  of  this  psalm,  as  we  shall  soon 
see,  have  a  special  and  peculiar  reference  to  Christ, 
and  so  catalogue  the  psalm  among  the  Messianic 
and  prophetic  scriptures.  The  psalm  is  not  like 
Ps.  110,  which  refers  exclusively  and  solely  to  the 
coming  Messiah,  whose  very  language,  as  well  as 
the  testimony  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  seems  to 
forbid  any  other  application.  This  psalm  has  in  it 
much  that  grew  out  of  the  experience  of  the 
psalmist,  and  that  is  common  to  all  of  God's  peo- 
ple whose  lives  are  lived  on  a  high  level  of  relig- 
ious faith  and  spirituality.  It  must  be  confessed 
that  its  language  presents  a  standard  and  an  ideal 
which  are  all  too  infrequently  reached  by  Chris- 
tians of  our  time,  notwithstanding  the  superior 
light  and  privileges  which  we  enjoy.  The  man 
who  could  truthfully  give  expression  to  his  attain- 
ments in  religious  life  and  faith  in  these  words 
would  seem  like  a  veritable  spiritual  giant,  while 
the  most  of  us  would  seem  like  pigmies  at  his 
side.  To  clothe  our  little  faith,  and  feeble  spiritual 
life,  and  puny  experiences  with  the  language  of  the 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  79 

psalm  would  be  like  a  little  child  attempting  to  put 
on  the  splendid  jeweled  dress  of  the  queen,  worn 
at  a  royal  reception.  The  appearance  of  extrava- 
gance and  overstatement  in  Scripture  language  is 
too  often  the  result  of  the  sad  immaturity  of  our 
Christian  experience.  We  apply  to  some  remote 
saint  of  Bible  times,  or  possibly  interpret  as  only 
prophetic  of  the  ideal  person  and  life  of  the  Mes- 
siah, words  which  ought  to  be  the  truthful  and 
well-fitting  expression  of  our  every-day  spiritual 
faith  and  joy,  peace  and  life  in  God. 

The  Scriptures  call  all  Christians  "saints,"  all 
believers  in  Jesus  Christ,  all  who  openly  profess  to 
be  living  the  religious  life,  and  not  the  few  who 
have  been  canonized  by  a  very  fallible  church. 
We  need  to  grow  up  to  our  God-given  name,  and 
to  be  developed  to  the  descriptive  language  of  the 
Bible,  much  of  which,  instead  of  applying  only  to 
Christ  and  to  exceptional  believers,  should  be  uni- 
versally applicable  and  should  fittingly  set  forth 
the  spirit,  life,  and  experience  of  every  child  of 
God.  The  ignorant  man  who  persisted  in  chang- 
ing the  last,  word  of  the  line  of  the  familiar  hymn, 
and  always  singing  it, 

Judge  not  the  Lord  by  feeble  saints, 

was    only   uttering    a    necessary    warning,    if   men 
would  have  correct  views  of  God  and  religion. 
How  many  of  us  are  living  such  exalted  expe- 


80  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

riences  that  we  can  say,  "I  have  no  good  outside 
of  God,  and  all  my  delight  is  in  his  people"? 
How  many  of  us  find  such  richness  and  fullness 
and  complete  satisfaction  in  our  religion  that  we 
can  say,  "Jehovah  is  the  portion  of  my  territory 
a.  I  of  my  cup,"  that  is,  He  is  my  satisfying  pos- 
session and  the  daily  food  by  which  I  live?  How 
many  of  us  have  that  undisturbed  faith  in  God, 
and  that  calm  and  peaceful  trust  in  his  wisdom  and 
unchanging  love  amid  the  hardships,  the  disap- 
pointments, the  losses,  the  sorrows  of  life,  that  we 
can  ever  sing,  "  The  lines  have  fallen  unto  me  in 
pleasant  places ;  yea,  I  have  a  goodly  heritage" 
How  many  of  us  are  so  steadfast,  so  unshaken,  so 
loyal  in  our  adherence  to  God  and  truth  and  duty, 
that  amid  the  temptations  to  disobedience  and 
widespread  apostasy  and  neglect  of  covenant  obli- 
gations we  can  affirm  at  all  times,  "/  have  set  Je- 
hovah akvays  before  me  :  because  he  is  at  my  right 
hand,  I  shall  not  be  moved.  Therefore  my  heart  is 
glad,  and  my  glory  rejoice th :  my  flesh  also  shall  rest 
in  hope." 

These  descriptions  of  religious  life  and  character 
were  undoubtedly  true  of  Christ,  the  Ideal  Man, 
to  the  very  letter.  He  did  say,  "My  meat  is  to 
do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me."  He  did  speak 
of  the  joy  and  the  peace  which  he  had  in  the 
Father,  and  which  he  longed  earnestly  to  impart 
to   men.      He  did  submissively  say,  in   an    ordeal 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  bl 

more  severe  than  any  other  son  of  man  ever 
passed  through,  "Nevertheless  not  as  I  will,  but 
as  thou  wilt."  He  did  assert  as  the  one  supreme 
motive  of  his  earthly  life,  "I  must  be  about  my 
Father's  business." 

All  this  language  of  the  psalm  was  pre-emi ■.... 
nently  true  of  him  who  lived  and  loved  in  Galilee, 
and  prophetic  of  his  divine  example  for  the  world. 
But  thus  far  the  psalm  was  undoubtedly  true  in 
some  sense  of  the  man  of  God  who  wrote  these 
words,  and  ought  to  be  true  of  the  spirit  and  life 
of  every  man  of  God  who  reads  them.  This  is 
the  beautiful  picture  of  a  righteous  man,  of  a  man 
whose  heart  is  right,  who  has  been  brought  into 
right  relations  with  God  and  with  his  environment, 
who  acknowledges  his  daily  dependence  upon  the 
Infinite  Spirit,  and  has  ceased  to  worry  and  fret  and 
chafe  under  the  yoke  of  God's  providences,  in 
which  sometimes  the  unyielding  harness  seems  to 
be  all  sharp  buckles,  and  not  smooth  bands. 

The  inspired  man  of  God  who  wrote  these 
words  was  David,  who  sang  out  of  his  own  expe- 
rience, and  whose  skillful  fingers  have  touched  and 
caused  to  vibrate  so  many  of  the  chords  of  human 
life  all  down  the  ages.  The  psalm  has  always  been 
ascribed  to  him.  His  name  appears  in  the  inscrip- 
tion, which,  though  not  inspired,  is  as  worthy  of 
confidence  as  an  infidel  denial.  Moreover,  Peter 
and   Paul  have  distinctly  told  us  that  David  wrote 


82  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

it,  and  we  confidently  accept  their  testimony.  It 
was  David's  psalm,  written  by  his  wonderful  pen, 
born  out  of  his  experience,  throbbing  with  his  life, 
ringing  with  his  faith  and  joy  and  contentment, 
and  bright  with  present  and  immortal  hope. 

It  was  David  who  confessed  that  he  had  no  pros- 
perity apart  from  God,  and  no  real  comfort  apart 
from  the  fellowship  of  his  people.  It  was  David  who 
refused  to  honor  any  other  deities  or  be  associated 
in  their  worship.  It  was  David  who  declared  that 
God  was  his  satisfying  portion  and  his  inheritance, 
his  landed  estate  and  his  meat  and  drink,  his  abid- 
ing and  imperishable  wealth  and  the  daily  nour- 
ishment of  his  soul,  anticipating  the  words  of  Paul, 
"All  things  are  yours,  for  ye  are  Christ's,  and 
Christ  is  God's,"  anticipating  the  words  of  Savona- 
rola:  "What  must  not  he  possess  who  possesses 
the  Possessor  of  all."  It  was  David  who  looked 
out  upon  his  earthly  lot  and  declared  it  to  be 
bright  with  the  sunshine  of  God's  love,  and  that 
his  heritage  was  exceedingly  fair  to  behold,  remind- 
ing us  of  his  other  words,  "Goodness  and  mercy 
have  followed  me  all  the  days  of  my  life,  and  I 
will  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  forever."  Ah ! 
that  was  what  made  his  heritage  so  goodly.  This 
land  in  which  he  dwelt  was  God's  house  for  his 
body,  and  yonder  soon  would  be  God's  house  for 
his  soul.  It  was  David  who  acknowledged  that  it 
was  God's  wisdom   that   had   guided    him   in    his 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  83 

choice,  and  had  so  illuminated  his  heart  that  in 
the  darkness  and  silence  of  the  night  he  could 
hear  its  words  of  instruction.  It  was  David  who 
proclaimed  that  he  had  entered  into  friendly  alliance 
with  Jehovah,  as  against  the  combined  forces  of 
evil  in  the  world,  that  the  Almighty  was  in  front  of 
him  as  his  shield  and  at  his  right  hand  as  his  pro- 
tector, aye,  that  he  was  his  right  hand,  that  God's 
right  arm  was  his  right  arm  ;  that  God  was  not  a 
dream,  or  an  abstraction,  or  a  God  afar  off,  but  a 
real,  living  person,  walking  at  his  side,  and  there- 
fore he  should  neither  fall  nor  be  felled,  but  amid 
the  temptations  and  moral  upheavals  and  shocking 
disasters  of  life  he  should  stand  unharmed,  immov- 
able, invincible,  and  having  done  all  should  stand. 
It  was  David  who,  in  the  strength  of  his  faith  and 
the  gladness  of  his  heart,  looked  out  upon  the  vic- 
torious issue  of  life,  and  penetrating  the  mystery 
that  shrouds  life's  end,  the  unseen  and  the  un- 
known of  death  and  the  grave,  calmly  said,  "My 
flesh  also  shall  rest  in  hope,"  or  in  safety,  as  the 
Hebrew  word  means. 

And  was  it  not  David  who  said  also  for  himself 
in  some  true  sense,  "Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul 
in  the  unseen  world,  neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thine 
Holy  One  to  see  corruption.  Thou  wilt  show  me 
the  path  of  life  ;  in  thy  presence  is  fulness  of  joy  ; 
at  thy  right  hand  there  are  pleasures  for  evermore." 
This   language,   as   has   been  said    already,   is  evi- 


84  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

dently  a  clear,  emphatic,  unmistakable  declaration 
of  his  faith  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  It  was 
as  if  he  had  heard  Christ,  the  Lord  of  life,  say: 
"Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also,"  and  his  heart 
cried  out  in  glad  response,  without  a  doubt  or  a 
fear,  "  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  grave, 
where  is  thy  victory  ?  " 

But  we  are  taught  by  men  chosen  by  Christ  to 
receive  his  Spirit,  who  should  lead  them  into  all 
the  truth,  and  should  take  of  the  things  of  Christ 
and  show  them  unto  them,  that  these  words  were 
to  find  a  literal  and  more  perfect  and  intended  ful- 
fillment in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  centu- 
ries later,  that  the  application  to  David  was  .only 
partial  and  prophetic,  and  that  David  was  conscious 
when  he  wrote  the  words  that  he  was  speaking  not 
simply  of  his  own  immortality,  but  of  that  glorious 
and  crowning  event  of  Christ's  manifestation  on 
earth,  which  should  be  at  the  same  time  the  irre- 
sistible proof  of  his  divine  character  and  mission, 
and  the  conclusive  evidence  of  the  great  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection  of  us  all. 

It  is  sometimes  maintained  that  the  Messianic 
prophecies  of  the  Psalms  and  of  other  books  of  the 
Old  Testament  are  simply  "idealizations"  of  David 
or  Solomon,  of  some  eminent  character  in  Jewish 
history,  and  that  the  fact  and  expression  of  these 
"  idealizations  "  naturally  gave  rise  to  the  expecta- 
tion that  in  the  future  some  person,  a  superior  king, 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  85 

or  a  supreme  sufferer,  or  both  in  one,  would  arise 
who  should  fulfill,  that  is,  fill  full  or  fill  out,  these 
pictures  of  the  imagination  ;  and  so  in  the  New 
Testament  these  "idealizations"  are  regarded  as 
prophetic,  as  Messianic,  and  Christ  is  declared  to 
be  their  adequate  fulfillment  and  realization.  This 
view  is  advanced  and  defended  by  Rev.  C.  A.  Row, 
in  "  The  Jesus  of  the  Evangelists."  He  says  of 
these  Messianic  ideas  in  the  Psalms  : 

They  are  chiefly  either  uttered  by  David  or  ascribed  to 
him  in  his  character  of  theocratic  king.  As  such  they  con- 
tain utterances  which  are  not  strictly  true  of  any  human 
being.  They  may  be  described  as  David  idealized.  .  . 
These  idealizations  therefore  would  naturally  produce  the 
effect  of  creating  the  expectation  that  there  was  a  King  yet 
future  in  whom  they  were  to  receive  a  more  adequate  real- 
ization. .  .  The  larger  proportion  of  the  Messianic  psalms 
contains  delineations  of  the  greatness  and  the  holiness  of 
the  idealized  David.  But  there  are  psalms  which  idealize 
David,  or  at  any  rate  the  author  who  composed  them,  as  a 
sufferer.  .  .  Both  these  species  of  psalms  are  directly  re- 
ferred to  in  the  New  Testament  as  prophetic.  Their  ideal- 
ization is  fulfilled  in  the  character  of  the  Jesus  therein  por- 
trayed. 

This  theory  presents  a  naturalistic  interpretation 
of  the  Messianic  utterances  and  of  the  origin  and 
growth  of  the  Messianic  idea ;  but  it  eliminates 
largely,  if  not  entirely,  the  supernatural  element  in 
what  is  called  prophecy,  so  that  prophecy  is  only  a 
hope,  a  longing,  a  pleasant  dream,  a  cherished  ex- 


86  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

pectation  born  of  the  imagination,  and  not  a  posi- 
tive assurance  and  utterance  based  upon  a  divine 
illumination.  Prophecy  becomes  no  longer  proph- 
ecy in  the  common  acceptation  of  the  word.  It 
may  be  difficult  to  explain  how  prophets  were 
made  and  what  was  the  method  of  the  operation 
of  God's  illuminating  Spirit.  Ideals  of  greatness 
and  glory  and  possibly  of  suffering  may  be  sug- 
gested by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  there  be  kindled 
in  the  heart  the  expectation  of  a  coming  realiza- 
tion and  fulfillment.  David  may  have  been  ideal- 
ized, his  moral  character,  the  events  of  his  life,  his 
kingly  state,  and  his  righteous  and  extended  do- 
minion. He  himself  may  have  given  utterance  to 
exalted  views  of  personal  character  and  sublime 
conceptions  of  life  as  lived  in  holy  fellowship  with 
God,  such  as  were  fully  realized  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
he  may  have  cherished  the  fond  expectation  that 
some  day  they  would  have  their  living  fulfillment. 
But  all  this  would  not  be  prophecy  in  the  scriptural 
sense.  Such  a  view  falls  very  far  short  of  an  ade- 
quate interpretation  of  the  Messianic  scriptures. 
It  fails  to  account  for  the  positive  predictive  char- 
acter of  many  of  them  and  for  the  numerous  par- 
ticular specifications  which  were  literally  fulfilled  in 
Christ.  Prophecy  is  vastly  more  than  idealized  his- 
tory or  idealized  biography.  So  those  believed, 
who,  moved  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  originally  ut- 
tered it,  and  so  those  also  believed  who,  instructed 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  87 

by  the  same  divine  Spirit,  have  interpreted  it  for 
us. 

The  Apostle  Peter,  in  that  wonderful  sermon  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost,  which  carried  conviction  and 
faith  to  the  hearts  of  a  great  multitude,  among 
whom  were  the  crucifiers  of  our  Lord,  speaking  of 
Christ's  resurrection,  said  :  "Whom  God  hath  raised 
up,  having  loosed  the  pains  of  death  :  because  it  was 
not  possible  that  he  should  be  holdcn  of  it  [not  pos- 
sible because  of  God's  plan  and  purpose  which  he 
had  revealed  in  his  word].  For  David  speakcth 
concerning  him,  I  foresaw  the  Lord  always  before 
my  face  [the  quotation  beginning  with  the  eighth 
verse  of  the  psalm]  ;  for  he  is  on  my  right  hand, 
that  I  should  not  be  moved  :  therefore  did  my  heart 
rejoice,  and  my  tongue  was  glad  ;  moreover  also  my 
flesh  shall  rest  in  hope  :  because  thou  wilt  not  leave 
my  soul  in  hell,  neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thine  Holy 
One  to  see  corruption.  Thou  hast  made  known  to 
me  the  ways  of  life  ;  thou  shalt  make  me  full  of  joy 
with  thy  countenance.  [Peter  quotes  from  the  Sep- 
tuagint  version.]  Men  and  brethren,  let  me  freely 
speak  unto  you  of  the  patriarch  David  [that  is,  lis- 
ten to  me  candidly  while  I  show  to  you  'without 
fear  of  being  thought  deficient  in  any  just  respect 
to  his  memory,'  that  these  words  could  not  have  re- 
ferred to  David,  because  he  was  not  raised  from  the 
dead,  and  therefore  did  see  corruption],  that  he  is 
both  dead  and  buried,  and  his  sepulchre  is  with  us 


88  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

unto  this  day.  [His  sepulchre  on  Mount  Zion  was 
well  known  at  that  time  and  remained  until  the  time 
of  Hadrian.]  Therefore  being  a  prophet  [being  in- 
spired of  God  to  speak  his  will,  as  well  as  to  fore- 
see and  declare  coming  events],  and  knowing  that 
God  had  sworn  with  an  oath  to  him,  that  of  the 
fruit  of  his  loins,  according  to  the  flesh,  he  would 
raise  up  Christ  to  sit  on  his  throne  ;  he,  seeing  this 
before,  spake  [intelligently  and  with  a  clear  pro- 
phetic understanding]  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
that  his  soul  was  not  left  in  hell,  neither  his  flesh 
did  see  corruption.  This  Jesus  hath  God  raised 
up,  whereof  we  are  all  witnesses." 

Peter,  speaking  upon  these  verses  of  the  psalm, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  distinctly 
affirms  that  they  had  their  ultimate  reference  to 
Christ  and  their  literal  fulfillment  in  him  and  his 
resurrection  from  the  dead  ;  in  other  words,  that 
they  were  a  divine  prophecy  of  this  glorious  fact  of 
our  Christian  faith,  and  that  David,  being  a  prophet 
of  God,  that  is,  divinely  inspired,  knew  what  he  was 
discoursing  upon  when  he  uttered  them,  and  was 
conscious  of  their  prophetic  meaning,  knowing  that 
God  had  sworn  that  he  would  raise  up  his  lineal 
descendant  to  sit  upon  his  throne  ;  he  seeing  this 
before,  that  is,  foreseeing  this  very  event,  spoke  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  Messiah,  that  his  soul  should 
not  be  left  in  sheol,  neither  should  his  flesh  see  cor- 
ruption.     Indeed,  reasoned  Peter,  David  could  not 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  89 

have  been  speaking  of  himself,  for  he  shared  in  the 
common  lot  of  humanity.  He  died  and  was  buried  ; 
his  body  was  given  over  to  corruption,  and  with  his 
sepulchre  we  are  all  familiar.  But  not  so  with  this 
Jesus.  His  body  saw  no  corruption.  God,  by  his 
almighty  power,  snatched  it  from  decay,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  own  prophetic  declaration.  He  raised 
him  from  the  dead,  and  we  are  all  witnesses  of  the 
sublime  fact. 

We  are  simply  unfolding  the  argument  of  the 
inspired  apostle,  which  was  the  means  of  convert- 
ing three  thousand  hostile  Jews,  to  whom  the  Scrip- 
tures had  been  familiar  from  their  childhood,  into 
open  believers  in  Jesus  as  their  foretold  Messiah. 

Lange  insists  upon  the  double  reference  of  the 
words  of  the  psalmist  in  the  following  comment : 

But  how  are  we,  in  accordance  with  the  opinion  of  the 
apostle,  to  understand  the  prophecy  of  David  psychologi- 
cally ?  Did  David,  who  speaks  in  the  first  person,  and 
therefore  really  seems  to  refer  to  himself,  in  truth  speak,  not 
in  his  own  name,  but  in  that  of  the  Messiah  ?  The  psalm 
itself  does  not  furnish  the  least  support  for  such  a  view  ; 
nor  indeed  does  Peter  maintain  that  David,  omitting  every 
reference  to  his  own  person,  spoke  exclusively  of  Christ. 
It  is  quite  consistent  with  the  words  and  the  meaning  of  the 
apostle  to  assume  that  David  certainly  expressed  more  im- 
mediately his  personal  hope  of  life,  founded  as  it  was  on 
his  close  communion  with  God  ;  but  Peter  as  certainly  as- 
serts emphatically  that  at  the  same  time  David,  by  virtue  of 
the  illumination  of  the  Spirit  of  God  which  was  in  him,  ex- 
pressed a  hope  which,  in  its  full  sense  and  meaning,  was 


90  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

to  be  fulfilled,  not  in  himself,  but  in  that  Anointed  One  of 
God,  who  was  promised  to  him  and  who  was  his  descend- 
ant and  a  successor  on  his  throne. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  also,  who  was  a  profound  stu- 
dent of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  to  whom  no  modern 
interpreter  can  hold  a  candle,  and  was  also  the 
recipient  of  the  gift  of  divine  inspiration,  in  like 
manner  quotes  this  psalm,  and  also  the  second 
Psalm,  in  addressing  the  Jews  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia, 
as  referring  to  the  resurrection,  the  exaltation  to 
glory,  the  eternal  existence,  the  deliverance  from 
corruption,  the  full  Messiahship  of  Jesus.  Let  us 
recall  the  remarkable  passage  found  in  Acts  13  :  26, 
seq.  :  "Men  and  brethren,  children  of  the  stock  of 
Abraham,  and  whosoever  among  you  feareth  God, 
to  you  is  the  word  of  this  salvation  sent.  For  they 
that  dwell  at  Jerusalem,  and  their  rulers,  because 
they  knew  him  not,  nor  yet  the  voices  of  the 
prophets  which  are  read  every  sabbath  day,  they 
have  fulfilled  them  in  condemning  him.  [It  was 
blind  ignorance  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  that  led 
to  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus.  It  is  to-day  a  similar 
ignorance  that  refuses  to  see  their  application  to 
Christ]  And  though  they  found  no  cause  of 
death  in  him,  yet  desired  they  Pilate  that  he  should 
be  slain.  And  when  they  had  fulfilled  all  that  was 
written  of  him,  they  took  him  down  from  the  tree, 
and  laid  him  in  a  sepulchre.  But  God  raised  him 
from  the  dead :    and  he  was  seen  many  days  of 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  9 1 

them  which  came  up  with  him  from  Galilee  to 
Jerusalem,  who  are  his  witnesses  unto  the  people. 
And  we  declare  unto  you  glad  tidings,  how  that 
the  promise  which  was  made  unto  the  fathers,  God 
hath  fulfilled  the  same  unto  us  their  children,  in 
that  he  hath  raised  up  Jesus  again ;  as  it  is  also 
written  in  the  second  psalm,  Thou  art  my  Son,  this 
day  have  I  begotten  thee.  And  as  concerning  that 
he  raised  him  up  from  the  dead,  now  no  more  to 
return  to  corruption,  he  said  on  this  wise,  I  will 
give  you  the  sure  mercies  of  David.1  Wherefore 
he  saith  also  in  another  psalm,2  Thou  wilt  not 
suffer  thine  Holy  One  to  see  corruption.  For 
David,  after  he  had  served  his  own  generation  by 
the  will  of  God,  fell  on  sleep,  and  was  laid  unto  his 
fathers,  and  saw  corruption :  but  he,  whom  God 
raised  again,  saw  no  corruption." 

"The  main  idea  of  the  clause  is,"  says  Doctor 
Hackett,  "  that  David,  like  other  men,  had  but  one 
generation  of  contemporaries,  that  he  accomplished 
for  that  his  allotted  work,  and  then  yielded  to  the 
universal  law  which  consigns  the  race  to  death." 

The  words  of  this  psalm,  therefore,  says  Paul, 
were  not  fulfilled  in  David,  but  in  Jesus,  whom 
God  raised  from  the  dead  in  a  miraculous  manner, 
and  who  therefore  saw  no  corruption,  whose  min- 
istry was  neither  terminated  nor  interrupted  by  his 

1  Isa.  55  :  3.  a  Ps.  16. 


92  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

death,  was  not  confined  to  his  own  generation,  but 
was  predetermined  to  be  for  all  generations  of  men 
down  to  the  end  of  time,  and  who  by  his  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead  was  seen  to  be  invested  with 
the  power  of  an  endless  life,  and  therefore  is  able 
to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  who  put  their  trust  in 
him. 

Paul's  statements  forcibly  remind  us  of  Peter's 
course  of  argument,  but  contain  an  entirely  inde- 
pendent use  of  the  language  of  the  psalm.  Both 
find  in  it  a  clear  and  unmistakable  prophecy  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  Messiah  ;  but  their  point  of  view 
is  different,  and  their  reference  to  the  foretold  fact 
of  Christ's  resurrection  is  for  different  purposes. 
Peter  shows  that  on  account  of  the  prophecy,  since 
the  divine  purpose  cannot  fail,  it  was  not  possible 
that  Christ  should  be  holden  by  death,  he  must 
have  risen  from  the  grave ;  while  Paul,  accepting 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  as  evidence  of  his  Mes- 
siahship,  declares  that  through  him  and  the  per- 
petuity of  his  existence,  the  grace  and  forgiveness 
of  God  and  eternal  life  were  to  be  evermore  offered 
to  men.  Moreover,  it  may  be  added  in  the  words 
of  Doctor  Alexander : 

That  one  discourse  is  not  compiled  or  copied  from  the 
other  is  sufficiently  apparent  from  the  difference  of  form, 
Paul  quoting  a  single  verse,  and  that  only  in  part,  of  the 
four  which  Peter  had  made  use  of,  and  connecting  that  one 
with  a  passage  in  Isaiah,  not  alluded  to  by  Peter,  while  he 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  93 

passed  by  the  latter' s  kindred  argument  derived  from  Ps. 
no.  All  this  goes  to  show  the  independence  of  the  two 
apostles  and  their  two  discourses,  but  at  the  same  time  their 
exact  agreement  in  the  exposition  of  a  Messianic  prophecy. 

It  is  pertinent  to  remark  in  this  connection,  that 
among  prophecies  setting  forth  the  person  and  mis- 
sion of  the  coming  Messiah,  a  fact  so  all-important 
as  his  resurrection  from  the  dead  would  not  be 
omitted.  We  should  expect  that  it  would  have  a 
distinct  and  conspicuous  place  in  the  prophetic 
picture,  such  as  it  does  have  in  this  psalm  and  in 
Ps.  2.  It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  effect 
upon  the  minds  of  the  early  disciples  of  their  belief 
in  the  actual  resurrection  of  their  crucified  Master, 
or  to  overestimate  the  significance  of  the  fact  in  the 
Christian  system.  The  crucifixion  of  Christ  must 
have  seemed  to  his  followers  an  unspeakable  catas- 
trophe. Hope,  courage,  and  faith  itself  must  have 
been  buried  with  him  who  was  laid  in  Joseph's 
tomb.  It  was  his  resurrection,  seen  in  the  light  of 
divine  prophecy  and  verified  by  the  repeated  test 
of  their  senses,  that  revived  their  hope,  restored 
and  enlarged  their  faith,  and  that  offers  to-day  the 
only  adequate  reason  for  their  heroic  propagandism 
and  the  marvelous  victories  of  the  religion  of  Christ 
in  the  early,  and  also  in  the  later,  centuries.  West- 
cott  has  well  said  : 

If  we  measure  what  seemed  to  be  the  hopeless  ignominy 
of  the  catastrophe  by  which  his  work  was  ended,  and  the 


94  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

divine  prerogatives  which  are  claimed  for  him,  not  in  spite 
of,  but  in  consequetice  of,  that  suffering  and  shame,  we  shall 
feel  the  utter  hopelessness  of  reconciling  the  fact,  and  that 
triumphant  deduction  from  it,  without  some  intervening  fact 
as  certain  as  Christ's  passion  and  glorious  enough  to  trans- 
figure its  sorrow. 

The  brilliant  paragraph  of  Farrar  is  not  a  rhe- 
torical overstatement: 

At  the  moment  when  Christ  died,  nothing  could  have 
seemed  more  abjectly  weak,  more  pitifully  hopeless,  more 
absolutely  doomed  to  scorn  and  extinction  and  despair, 
than  the  church  which  he  had  founded.  It  numbered  but 
a  handful  of  weak  followers,  of  which  the  boldest  had  denied 
his  Lord  with  blasphemy  and  the  most  devoted  had  for- 
saken him  and  fled.  They  were  poor,  they  were  ignorant, 
they  were  hopeless.  They  could  not  claim  a  single  syna- 
gogue or  a  single  sword.  If  they  spoke  their  own  language, 
it  bewrayed  them  by  its  mongrel  dialect ;  if  they  spoke  the 
current  Greek,  it  was  despised  as  a  miserable  patois.  So 
feeble  were  they  and  insignificant,  that  it  would  have  looked 
like  foolish  partiality  to  prophesy  for  them  the  limited  exist- 
ence of  a  Galilean  sect.  How  was  it  that  these  dull  and 
ignorant  men,  with  their  cross  of  wood,  triumphed  over  the 
deadly  fascinations  of  sensual  mythologies,  conquered  kings 
and  their  armies,  and  overcame  the  world  ?  What  was  it 
that  thus  caused  strength  to  be  made  perfect  out  of  abject 
weakness  ?  There  is  one,  and  only  one,  possible  answer, 
the  resurrection  from  the  dead.  All  this  vast  revolution  was 
due  to  the  power  of  Christ' s  resurrection. 

The  importance  and  significance  of  Christ's  res- 
urrection are  not  a  whit  less  to-day  than  at  the 
first,  as  proclaiming  Christ's  divine  nature,  giving 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  95 

validity  to  his  claims,  authority  to  his  teachings, 
and  efficacy  to  his  atoning  death,  and  establishing 
the  supernatural  character  of  the  Christian  religion. 
It  is  an  essential  fact  in  the  Christian  faith  and  an 
essential  factor  in  its  influence  and  its  permanence. 
We  are  not  surprised  that  the  inspired  psalmist 
foresaw  and  foretold  it.  We  should  have  been 
surprised  if  so  momentous  an  event  had  been  over- 
looked in  his  prophetic  message. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  add  that  the  title,  "  thine 
Holy  One,"  is  peculiar.  Peter  and  Paul  leave  us 
in  no  slightest  doubt  as  to  its  reference  to  Christ. 
We  are  reminded  also  of  the  language  of  the  angel 
of  the  annunciation  to  Mary  :  "  The  Holy  Ghost 
shall  come  upon  thee,  and  the  power  of  the  High- 
est shall  overshadow  thee  :  therefore  also  that  holy 
thing  which  shall  be  born  of  thee  shall  be  called 
the  Son  of  God."  l  And  of  the  expression  in  Acts 
4  :  27  :  "For  of  a  truth  against  thy  holy  child 
Jesus,  whom  thou  hast  anointed,  both  Herod,  and 
Pontius  Pilate,  with  the  Gentiles,  and  the  people  of 
Israel,  were  gathered  together"  ;  and  of  the  applica- 
tion of  the  same  title  to  Christ  in  Acts  3:14:  "  But 
ye  denied  the  Holy  One  and  the  Just,  and  desired 
a  murderer  to  be  granted  unto  you." 

This  psalm,  then,  is  strongly  Messianic.  It  fore- 
told the  crowning  fact  of  Christ's  early  manifesta- 

1  Luke  1  :  35. 


96  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

tion,  which  is  the  supporting  pillar  of  the  whole 
Christian  system.      A  recent  writer  has  said : 

Christianity  in  its  ultimate  analysis  consists  of  two  ele- 
ments, a  person  and  a  fact,  Jesus  and  the  resurrection. 
Belief  in  these  and  confession  of  these  are  the  condition  of 
salvation. 1  The  resurrection  is  the  basis  of  our  acceptance, 2 
the  ground  of  our  justification,3  the  source,  as  it  is  the  stand- 
ard, of  Christian  living,4  the  highest  Christian  attainment,5 
the  measure  of  God's  power  in  the  saints.6  Without  it  there 
is  no  Christianity  and  no  salvation.  "If  Christ  be  not 
raised  your  faith  is  vain,  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins." 

And  he  might  add — without  it  inspired  prophecy- 
is  yet  unfulfilled  and  inspired  history  is  false.  But 
we  sing  to-day  without  a  tremor  or  a  doubt : 

From  the  dark  grave  he  rose, 

The  mansion  of  the  dead  ; 
And  thence  his  mighty  foes 

In  glorious  triumph  led  : 
Up  through  the  sky  the  Conqueror  rode, 
And  reigns  on  high  the  Saviour  God. 

From  thence  he'll  quickly  come, 

His  chariot  will  not  stay, 
And  bear  our  spirits  home 

To  realms  of  endless  day  : 
There  shall  we  see  his  lovely  face, 
And  ever  be  in  his  embrace. 

"  In  thy  presence,  O  Christ,  is  fulness  of  joy ;  at 
thy  right  hand  are  pleasures  for  evermore." 

1  Rom.  10  :  9.  2  Rom.  4  :  24.  3  Rom.  4  :  25. 

4  Col.  3:1.  5  Phil.  3  :  10.         6  Eph.-I  :  19,  20. 


CHAPTER  V 
PSALM  LXXII 


V 

A  noticeable  feature  of  the  psalms 
Psalm  LXXII       .  .  ,  ,  .,       r  ; r,       . 

which  we  have  thus  far  considered, 

has  been  that  they  have  been  quoted  in  the  New 
Testament  as  referring  to  Christ,  either  by  Christ 
himself  or  by  his  apostles,  or  by  both.  This  fact 
has  been  accepted  as  conclusive  proof  of  their 
Messianic  character.  If  we  believe  in  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  that  in 
their  statements  of  facts  and  arguments  in  favor  of 
the  Mcssiahship  of  Jesus  drawn  from  the  Old  Tes- 
tament Scriptures  they  were  under  the  guidance 
of  God's  Spirit,  and  if  we  believe  in  the  divine 
authority  of  Christ  and  his  exemption  from  error, 
their  interpretation  of  the  prophetic  passages  re- 
moves all  uncertainty,  and  leaves  no  room  for 
question  or  discussion.  But  if  there  are  interpre- 
ters who  do  not  regard  the  testimony  of  Christ  and 
his  apostles  as  authoritative  and  final,  who  think 
them  liable  to  errors  of  interpretation,  of  state- 
ment, and  of  doctrine,  we  occupy  entirely  different 
grounds. 

The  question  then  is  not,  What  did  Christ  and  his 
apostles  say  and  teach  ?  but,  Is  what  they  said  and 
taught  worth  anything  ?    Should  it  have  any  weight 

99 


IOO  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

and  value?  And  if  their  teaching  in  respect  to 
the  Messianic  prophecies  is  to  be  discounted,  how 
can  we  put  any  confidence  in  their  teaching  in 
respect  to  any  truth  of  God  or  religion?  Such  a 
position  seems  to  take  the  bottom  out  of  Chris- 
tianity itself.  Christianity  as  a  system  rests  upon 
the  person  of  Christ  and  the  teachings  of  Christ  and 
his  inspired  apostles.  As  believers  in  Christianity 
as  a  divine  and  authoritative  religion,  we  can  have 
no  use,  therefore,  for  interpreters  who  question  the 
very  basis  of  its  authority.  As  establishing  the 
truthfulness  of  the  Messianic  prophecies  we  regard 
the  testimony  of  Christ  and  his  apostles  as  final  and 
absolutely  conclusive. 

But  some  wise  and  devout  students  of  the  Bible 
have  gone  so  far  as  to  say  that  only  those  passages 
in  the  Old  Testament  are  to  be  regarded  as  refer- 
ring to  Christ  which  are  so  referred  by  the  writers 
of  the  New  Testament,  as  if  it  were  to  be  expected, 
or  were  even  possible,  for  the  followers  of  Christ  to 
gather  up  and  repeat  in  their  brief  writings  all  ref- 
erences to  the  Messiah  in  the  sacred  Scriptures  of 
a  people  in  whose  souls  the  Messianic  hope  was  an 
ever-present  reality  and  which  was  ever  finding  ex- 
pression in  their  history,  their  ritual  of  worship, 
their  psalms  of  faith,  their  religious  literature,  their 
record  of  daily  life,  and  their  anticipations  of  na- 
tional greatness  and  glory. 

Pressense  has  truly  said  : 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  101 

It  would  behaving  an  incomplete  conception  of  prophecy 
to  see  it  nowhere  but  in  the  oracles  of  the  prophets.  It  cir- 
culated in  every  part  of  Judaism,  it  flowed  from  every  insti- 
tution, as  from  every  event.  The  Mosaic  system  was,  as  a 
whole,  the  figure  of  that  which  was  to  come.  Thus,  even 
when  there  flourished  no  prophet,  prophecy  did  not  cease  for 
a  moment  to  cause  its  voice  to  be  heard.  Even  in  silence 
it  spoke  by  the  worship,  by  the  altar,  by  the  blood  of  the 
victims. 

This  sublime  national  hope,  which  entered  into 
the  deepest  life  and  the  solemn  public  worship  of 
the  Jewish  people,  all  pervasive  and  indestructible, 
would  naturally  and  inevitably  flash  out  everywhere 
in  their  annals  and  prophecies.  It  was  the  one 
blessed  reality  of  their  lives  toward  which  thought 
and  hope,  desire  and  worship  all  converged.  Said 
the  late  Dr.  Hackett : 

It  is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  the  comparatively  few 
passages  which  are  cited  in  the  New  Testament  from  the 
Old,  as  having  been  spoken  of  Christ  and  as  fulfilled  in 
him,  exhaust  the  number  of  such  passages.  The  New  Testa- 
ment represents  the  Redeemer  as  the  great  subject  of  the 
ancient  economy  ;  and  if  those  types  and  predictions  only 
have  reference  to  him  which  are  cited  and  applied  in  that 
manner,  it  would  be  difficult  to  see  how  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
could  claim  such  a  character  of  predominant  reference  to  the 
Christian  dispensation.  It  should  be  admitted  that  other 
portions  also,  which  the  Saviour  and  the  apostles  have  not 
interpreted  for  us,  may  have  a  Messianic  import.  We  im- 
pose all  proper  safeguards  on  the  principle  if  we  insist  that 
the  language  of  the  passages  in  question  be  clearly  such  as 


102  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

to  indicate  their  applicability  to  Christ  and  his  kingdom, 
and  that  the  views  concerning  him  and  his  work  deduced 
from  them  harmonize  entirely  with  the  general  tenor  of  the 
Old  Testament  revelations  on  this  subject,  which  are  unques- 
tionable in  their  character.  With  these  precautions  we  may 
safely  understand  such  passages  as  Messianic,  though  we 
have  not  the  express  authority  of  the  New  Testament  writers 
for  such  an  interpretation. 

The  seventy-second  Psalm  is  one  of  these  un- 
quoted Messianic  passages.  There  is  language  in 
the  New  Testament  which  is  strikingly  similar  to 
some  of  the  verses  of  the  psalm.  But  the  psalm  is 
never  used  as  an  argument  by  New  Testament 
writers  in  favor  of  the  character,  mission,  and  reign 
of  Christ.  There  is  no  quotation  from  it  whatever 
to  show  how  Christ  and  his  apostles  regarded  it.  A 
plain  quotation  and  reference  to  Christ  would  have 
been  proof  positive  of  its  Messianic  import.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  omission  of  any  quotation  is  no 
argument  against  it,  if  there  are  manifest  indications 
in  the  psalm  itself  that  it  referred  to  the  coming 
Messiah,  and  the  character,  the  extent,  and  the 
glory  of  his  kingdom. 

Cheyne,  in  "Jewish  Religious  Life  After  the 
Exile,"  does  not  hesitate  to  speak  of  this  as  "an- 
other Messianic  psalm,"  though  he  does  not  admit 
that  it  has  any  personal  application  to  Christ.  He 
uses  the  term  "  Messiah"  in  a  different  sense  from 
that  in  which  it  is  ordinarily  employed.  "The 
truth  is  that  the  Messiah  is  but  a  poetic  embodi- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  IO3 

mcnt  of  the  Davidic  royalty,  and  the  Davidic  roy- 
alty, in  the  absence  of  any  real  political  interest,  is 
but  the  representative  of  the  Jewish  people."  He 
takes  exception  to  the  striking  remark  of  R.  H. 
Hutton,  that  the  Jewish  prophets  had  learned  that 
"  There  must  be  between  the  Father  and  human 
nature  some  being  lowly  as  the  latter,  perfect  as 
the  former,  whose  kingliness  would  not  consist  in 
mere  righteous  power,  but  in  righteous  humility." 

It  may  be  said,  in  passing,  that  Jewish  interpre- 
ters have  had  no  doubt  as  to  this  personal  Mes- 
sianic application.  The  Targum  paraphrases  the 
first  verse  of  the  psalm  in  this  manner  :  "  O  God, 
give  the  knowledge  of  thy  judgments  to  the  King 
Messiah,  and  thy  justice  to  the  son  of  King  David." 
And  the  Midrash  Tchillim  says  of  the  king  here 
spoken  of,  "This  is  the  King  Messiah." 

But  it  is  the  character  of  the  psalm  itself,  its  re- 
markable language,  its  wonderful  description  of  the 
coming  king  and  his  kingdom,  its  beautiful  imagery 
as  to  the  beneficence  and  universal  extent  of  his 
reign  that  determines  its  reference  and  application. 
The  authorship  of  the  psalm  does  not  affect  its  in- 
terpretation. It  is  ascribed  to  Solomon,  and  this  is 
one  of  two  psalms  that  bear  his  name,  the  other 
being  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-seventh.  There 
is  no  good  argument  against  its  Solomonic  author- 
ship. Ilupfeld  thinks  it  belongs  to  a  later  time, 
but  offers  no  proof  of  his  opinion. 


104  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Delitzsch,  on  the  other  hand,  contends  that  we  find  here 
the  marks  both  of  Solomon's  style  and  of  Solomon's  time  ; 
that  the  expressions  are  arranged  for  the  most  part  in  dis- 
tichs,  like  the  Proverbs,  that  the  character  of  the  poetry  is 
reflective,  that  it  is  rich  in  images  borrowed  from  the  world 
of  nature. 

It  is  possible  that  the  psalm  found  a  partial  ful- 
fillment in  the  reign  of  Solomon,  especially  in  the 
earlier  and  more  prosperous  part  of  his  reign. 
The  history  tells  us  that : 

Solomon  reigned  over  all  kingdoms  from  the  river  unto 
the  land  of  the  Philistines,  and  unto  the  border  of  Egypt  ; 
they  brought  presents  and  served  Solomon  all  the  days  of 
his  life.  .  .  All  the  earth  sought  to  Solomon  to  hear  his  wis- 
dom, which  God  had  put  into  his  heart.  .  .  And  when  the 
queen  of  Sheba  heard  of  the  fame  of  Solomon  concerning  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  she  came  to  prove  him  with  hard  ques- 
tions. .  .  And  she  said  to  the  king  .  .  .  Blessed  be  the  Lord 
thy  God  which  delighted  in  thee,  to  set  thee  on  the  throne 
of  Israel  :  because  the  Lord  loved  Israel  for  ever,  therefore 
made  he  thee  king,  to  do  judgment  and  justice.  And  she 
gave  the  king  a  hundred  and  twenty  talents  of  gold,  and  of 
spices  very  great  store,  and  precious  stones  :  there  came  no 
more  such  abundance  of  spices  as  those  which  the  queen 
of  Sheba  gave  to  king  Solomon.1 

This  language  bears  some  resemblance  to  the 
language  of  the  psalm,  and  if  the  psalm  was  writ- 
ten later,  may  have  furnished  a  historic  basis.  "Be 
this  as  it  may,  we  have  here,"  says  Perowne,  "an- 

1  I  Kings  4:21;   10  :  24  ;    10  :  I,  9,  10. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  105 

other  instance  of  the  way  in  which  prophecy  rooted 
itself  in  the  Jewish  soil,  how  it  looked  first  to  the 
present  and  then  to  the  future,  first  to  the  type  and 
then  to  the  antitype."  Though  in  the  judgment 
of  candor  the  psalm  may  have  had  only  a  partial 
application  in  the  reign  of  Solomon,  it  harmonized 
with  that  more  than  with  the  reign  of  any  other 
Jewish  monarch. 

But  the  contents  of  the  psalm  make  it  impos- 
sible to  understand  it  as  limited  to  the  character 
and  reign  of  any  earthly  king.  Tholuck  says  :  "  It 
would  exceed  the  highest  flight  of  poetic  fancy  to 
apply  it  in  that  manner."  The  psalm  is  too  large 
to  be  accepted  as  the  description  of  the  little  glory 
and  pomp  of  any  historic  reality.  Its  language  is 
too  spiritual,  too  grand,  too  lofty,  too  far-reaching, 
to  be  limited  to  the  proudest  empire  that  the  world 
has  ever  seen  or  that  the  annals  of  history  have 
preserved  any  record  of.  The  portrait  of  the  king 
is  glorious  beyond  any  human  original.  The  be- 
neficence of  his  reign  and  the  happy  and  prosper- 
ous condition  of  his  subjects  find  no  counterpart 
this  side  of  the  predicted  millennium.  The  extent 
and  the  duration  of  his  dominion  are  as  wide  as 
the  universe  and  lasting  as  eternity. 

As  another  has  said  :  "The  king  described  here 
is  to  be  acknowledged  in  all  the  earth,  and  his 
dominion  to  endure  forever.  The  traits  of  char- 
acter also  which  arc  to  distinguish  him  declare  his 


106  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

superiority  to  any  human  ruler,  and  the  blessings 
which  he  is  to  confer  no  power  less  than  the  High- 
est can  bestow  on  its  subjects." 

No  candid  reader  can  peruse  this  psalm  and  con- 
template the  picture  here  presented  without  ex- 
claiming spontaneously:  "O  King,  thou  art  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God.  Thy  kingdom 
is  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy,  and  is  from 
everlasting  to  everlasting.  The  kingdoms  of  this 
world  shall  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and 
of  his  Christ,  and  he  shall  reign  forever  and  ever." 

The  psalm  may  be  divided  into  four  parts  and  a 
doxology,  though  the  inspired  writer  is  so  full  of 
the  thought  of  the  prosperous  and  glorious  reign 
of  the  Messiah  that  he  constantly  returns  upon 
himself  and  resumes  and  unfolds  still  further  the 
thought  that  is  swelling  within  his  breast. 

In  the  first  four  verses  is  set  forth  the  righteous 
and  peaceful  character  of  the  coming  kingdom  of 
the  Messiah.  "  Give  the  king  thy  judgments,  0 
God,  and  thy  righteousness  unto  the  king's  Son." 
How  appropriate  the  language  as  applied  to  David's 
greater  Son,  before  whose  glory  all  other  descend- 
ants disappear  and  are  forgotten.  His  throne  shall 
be  established  in  righteousness,  which  is  the  founda- 
tion of  all  good  government,  human  or  divine. 
What  men  need  to-day  as  the  true  relief  of  all 
social  evils  is  not  paternalism,  as  it  is  called,  about 
which  we  hear  so   much,   but  righteousness  and 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  IOJ 

equity  in  legislation  and  administration.  "  He  shall 
judge  thy  people  with  righteousness,  and  thy  poor 
with  Judgment."  This  shall  bring  about  a  return 
of  peace  and  prosperity  to  the  people.  Then  "  The 
mountains  shall  bring  peace  to  the  people,  and  the 
little  hills,  by  righteousness."  The  last  word  quali- 
fies both  members  of  the  sentence.  It  is  peace  by 
righteousness.  All  places,  high  and  low,  shall  yield 
a  harvest  of  peace,  because  they  have  been  sown 
with  the  seeds  of  righteousness.  It  is  not  charity 
but  equity,  not  paternalism  but  righteousness,  that 
men  most  need  in  human  government,  and  that  will 
characterize  the  coming  reign  of  the  Messiah.  All 
classes  shall  fare  alike.  There  shall  be  no  partial- 
ity and  no  distinction.  The  rights  of  all  shall  be 
sacredly  protected.  "He  shall  judge  the  poor  of 
the  people,  he  shall  save  the  children  of  the  needy, 
and  shall  break  in  pieces  the  oppressor."  All  op- 
pression and  wrong  shall  come  to  an  end,  whether 
it  be  of  the  poor  by  the  rich  or  of  the  rich  by  the 
poor,  because  the  oppressors  themselves  shall  come 
to  an  end.  There  will  not  be  enough  of  any  one 
of  them  left  to  oppress  anybody  or  anything. 
They  shall  be  broken  in  pieces. 

The  next  three  verses  (5—7)  set  forth  the  endless 
duration  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  and  at 
the  same  time  its  rapid  and  beneficent  growth  and 
its  blessed  effect  upon  the  people.  "  They  shall 
fear  thee  [that  is,  the  divine  Son]  as  long  as  the 


108  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

sun  and  moon  endure,  throughout  all  generations." 
"The  sun  and  moon  are  mentioned  here,"  it  has 
been  said,  "  as  witnesses  to  an  everlasting  order, 
and,  as  it  were,  figures  of  eternity  compared  with 
the  fleeting,  dying  generations  of  men."  So  long 
as  the  solar  system  stands,  so  long  as  suns  shall  rise 
and  set,  so  long  as  moons  shall  wax  and  wane,  so 
long  as  the  generations  of  the  human  race  shall 
survive,  the  name  of  Christ  shall  be  reverenced. 

But  though  all  power  is  his  in  heaven  and  in 
earth,  so  that  he  could  break  in  pieces  the  cruel 
oppressor,  his  victories  shall  be  won  by  the  irre- 
sistible might  of  his  own  gentleness  and  grace. 
"  He  shall  come  down  like  rain  upon  the  mown  grass  : 
as  showers  that  tvater  the  earth."  This  language 
reminds  us  of  those  other  words  which  have  not 
always  been  remembered  by  men,  "Not  by  might 
nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord." 

As  gentle  as  the  showers  from  heaven,  and  as 
perceptibly  effective  as  when  they  fall  upon  the 
fields  over  which  the  scythe  has  gone,  and  quicken 
their  apparent  barrenness  and  deadness  into  an 
abundance  of  verdant  life,  so  shall  be  the  refresh- 
ing and  life-giving  influence  of  the  Messiah's  reign. 
As  another  has  said,  "The  gracious  influence  of 
the  monarch  and  of  his  righteous  sway  is  strik- 
ingly compared  to  the  bountiful  shower  which 
freshens  the  withered  herbage  and  changes  the 
brown,  bare,  parched,  dusty  surface,  as  by  a  touch 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  IO9 

of  magic,  into  one  mass  of  verdure  and  bloom." 
This  suggestive  figure,  especially  suggestive  in  the 
dry,  tropical  Syrian  climate,  pictures  to  us  the 
beauty  and  loveliness  of  Christ's  reign  in  human 
hearts  and  in  human  society.  It  brings  life,  moral 
and  spiritual  beauty,  out  of  apparent  death  and 
unfruitfulness.  It  changes  the  whole  condition 
of  things.  For  "///  his  days  shall  the  righteous 
flourish  ;  and  abundance  of  peace  so  long  as  the 
moon  endureth."  A  righteous  kingdom  will  make 
righteous  subjects.  The  best  human  governments 
can  only  protect  those  who  are  good.  But  this 
new  government  of  the  Messiah  is  to  be  composed 
of  regenerated  men.  It  is  to  convert  bad  citizens 
into  good  citizens,  and  to  rest  upon  the  renewed 
hearts  and  refashioned  characters  of  its  subjects. 
And  so  it  is  that  under  the  Messiah's  reign  "mercy 
and  truth  are  met  together"  in  holy  wedlock,  and 
"righteousness  and  peace  shall  kiss  each  other"  in 
loving  and  lasting  embrace. 

The  next  four  verses  (8— 1 1)  set  forth  in  Oriental 
language  the  universal  territorial  extent  of  the  king- 
dom of  Christ,  and  the  subjection  of  all  powers  and 
of  all  lands  to  him.  "He  shall  have  dominion  also 
from  sea  to  sea,"  from  the  neighboring  Mediter- 
ranean to  that  supposed  encircling  sea  beyond  the 
utmost  verge  of  the  habitable  continent,  "and from 
the  river  unto  the  cuds  of  the  earth"  from  the  Eu- 
phrates unto  the  remotest  boundaries  of  all  lands. 


IIO  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

"  They  that  dwell  in  the  wilderness,"  the  wild,  un- 
civilized, untamed  savages  of  the  desert,  "shall  bow 
before  him,'"  and  any  who  oppose  him  shall  be  com- 
pletely subdued.  "  The  kings  of  Tarshish  and  of 
the  isles,"  i.  e.,  Spain  and  the  remote  islands  of  the 
west,  "  the  empire  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, the  great  maritime  and  commercial  coun- 
tries of  the  world,"  " shall  bring  presents"  in  return 
for  blessings  received,  and  "  the  kings  of  SJieba  and 
Seba,"  i.  e.,  Arabia  and  Ethiopia  in  the  far  south, 
"shall  offer  gifts"  of  tribute  and  of  homage. 
"  Yea,  all  kings  [whoever  they  are,  and  however 
powerful]  shall  fall  down  before  him  ;  all  nations 
[however  mighty  and  remote]  shall  serve  him." 
His  dominion  shall  be  complete  and  world-wide. 
Of  what  earthly  monarch  has  it  ever  been,  or  will 
it  ever  be,  true  ?  Of  whom  can  such  language  be 
employed  without  the  grossest  exaggeration,  except 
of  him  who  is  declared  to  be  "  King  of  kings  and 
Lord  of  lords." 

But  we  are  not  allowed  to  forget  the  character  of 
the  reign  of  the  Messiah,  his  personal  exaltation 
and  glory,  the  fruitfulness  and  blessedness  of  his 
kingdom,  and  the  eternal  splendor  which  shall  rest 
upon  his  royal  name.  All  these  are  set  forth  in 
fresh  and  striking  language  in  the  next  six  verses 
of  the  psalm  (12-17).  "For  he  shall  deliver  the 
needy  when  he  crieth  ;  the  poor  also,  and  him  that 
hath  no  helper  [but  God].      He  shall  spare  the  poor 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  III 

and  needy,  and  shall  save  the  souls  of  the  needy. 
He  shall  redeem  their  soul  from  deceit  and  violence  ; 
and  precious  shall  their  blood  be  in  his  sight."  The 
sad,  the  lonely,  the  outcast,  the  helpless,  the  op- 
pressed, the  wronged,  shall  find  in  him  the  gracious 
Sympathizer,  the  mighty  Protector,  the  divine  Sav- 
iour, and  the  righteous  Avenger. 

"And  he  shall  live,  and  to  him  shall  be  given  of 
the  gold  of  Shcba  ;  prayer  also  shall  be  made  for 
him  continually  ;  and  daily  shall  he  be  praised." 
His  reign  shall  not  be  terminated  by  his  death. 
His  dynasty  shall  be  without  end.  He  shall  have 
no  successor  on  his  throne.  The  tribute  of  the 
world  shall  be  forever  laid  at  his  feet.  When  we 
pray  "Thy  kingdom  come,"  we  are  praying  for 
the  Messiah,  and  his  glorious  and  perpetual  reign. 
When  we  sing  "All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  name," 
we  are  giving  him  daily  adoration  and  praise. 

Oh,  how  lovely  shall  be  the  sight  !  How  blessed 
shall  be  the  realization  of  this  sublime  and  thrilling 
prophecy  !  "  There  shall  be  an  abundance  [not  a 
handful]  of  corn  in  the  earth  upon  the  top  of  the 
mountains  ;  the  fruit  thereof  shall  shake  like  Leb- 
anon."    As  another  has  said  : 

The  idea  is  that  the  whole  country  shall  be  one  bright 
sunny  picture  of  gladness  and  fertility,  the  cornfields  being 
seen  not  only  in  the  valleys,  but  rising  terrace  above  terrace, 
along  the  mountain-sides,  till  they  reach  their  summits.  The 
rustling  of  the  cornfields  in  the  wind  is  compared  to  the 


112  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

rustling  of  the  cedars  of  Lebanon,  so  thick  shall  the  corn 
stand,  so  rich  shall  be  the  harvest. 

"  They  shall  flourish  forth  from  the  city  like  the 
grass  of  the  earth,'"  going  forth  on  every  side  from 
its  heated  air,  its  stifled  streets,  its  crowded  homes 
into  God's  open  fields,  where  heaven's  healthful 
breezes  blow,  and  no  smoky  atmosphere  conceals 
the  blue  by  day  or  the  brilliance  of  the  stars  by 
night.  The  whole  land  shall  be  covered  by  a 
vigorous  and  happy  population.  We  sometimes 
think  now,  that  if  the  slums  of  the  cities  could  be 
emptied  into  the  country,  and  their  contents  spread 
out  and  purified  and  sweetened  by  the  absorbent 
earth,  and  the  pure  air,  and  the  healing  sunshine, 
the  millennium  would  begin  to  dawn,  and  social 
life  would  take  on  an  appearance  of  health  and 
permanence  which  it  has  not  to-day,  and  civil 
government  be  purged  of  its  elements  of  corrup- 
tion and  decay.  Are  we  not  told  that  the  name  of 
the  Messiah  "shall  endure  forever"  ?  The  per- 
manence of  his  government  shall  never  be  dis- 
turbed or  endangered.  "  His  name  shall  be  con- 
tinued as  long  as  the  sun  ;  and  men  shall  be  blessed 
in  him:  all  nations  shall  call  him  blessed."  The 
blessedness  shall  be  reciprocal.  The  joy  of  the 
people  shall  be  in  their  righteous  and  benevolent 
and  glorious  Sovereign  ;  and  the  joy  of  the  Messiah 
shall  be  in  his  righteous  and  loving  and  obedient 
people.     Then  will   Isaiah's   prophecy  be  fulfilled  : 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  I  1 3 

"  He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  shall 
be  satisfied." 

Then  follows  a  splendid  doxology  (ver.  18,  19), 
the  outburst  of  religious  feeling  at  the  complete 
triumph  of  the  Messiah's  kingdom,  its  wonderful 
achievements  and  prosperity,  wrought  by  the  hand 
of  the  Almighty,  and  its  world-wide  renown. 
"Blessed  be  the  Lord  God,  the  God  of  Israel,  who 
only  doeth  wondrous  things.  And  blessed  be  his 
glorious  name  forever ;  and  let  the  whole  earth  be 
filled  with  his  glory.     Amen,  and  Amen." 

The  psalm  concludes  with  a  statement  (ver.  20), 
probably  added  by  another  hand,  which  seems  to 
have  been  placed  originally  at  the  close  of  a  col- 
lection of  psalms,  of  which  this  was  the  last,  and 
the  most  of  which  were  composed  by  David — "  The 
prayers  of  David,  the  son  of  Jesse,  are  ended." 

As  has  already  been  said,  this  psalm  has  missed 
being  quoted  in  the  New  Testament,  but  its  con- 
tents so  striking,  so  sublime,  so  supernatural,  and 
its  language  so  beautiful,  so  spiritual,  so  glorious, 
so  far-reaching,  forbid  its  literal  reference  to  King 
Solomon,  and  compel  its  application  to  one  King 
and  one  kingdom,  viz,  the  Messiah  King  of  divine 
prophecy,  and  that  kingdom  which  we  are  told  is 
to  result  from  the  purification  and  the  unification 
of  all  nations  through  the  triumph  of  the  gospel, 
when  "  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become 
the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ." 


I  14  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Rev.  Stanley  Leathes,  in  "  The  Witness  of  the 
Old  Testament  to  Christ,"  has  these  convincing 
words  as  to  the  spiritual  and  Messianic  application 
of  the  psalm  : 

From  this  seventy-second  Psalm  let  us  take  the  words, 
"His  name  shall  endure  forever;  his  name  shall  be  con- 
tinued as  long  as  the  sun  ;  and  men  shall  be  blessed  in 
him  ;  all  nations  shall  call  him  blessed."  What  is  it  that 
they  say  ?  If  taken  literally,  which  is  all  I  ask,  it  is  simply 
absurd,  either  to  refer  them  to  the  reign  of  Solomon,  or  to 
suppose  that  David  could  refer  to  him  in  them.  He  knew 
that  his  son  would  be  mortal  like  himself;  he  knew  that 
the  duration  of  the  material  heavens  would  outlast  the 
physical  lifetime  of  Solomon.  These  were  broad  facts,  of 
which  he  could  not  possibly  be  ignorant  ;  neither  could  he 
believe  that  men  should  be  blessed,  or  should  bless  them- 
selves, in  him.  .  .  We  may  therefore  justly  maintain  that 
the  blessing  anticipated  for  Solomon,  and  for  Israel  and 
mankind  through  him,  was  more  than  a  material  or  secular 
blessing.  From  the  nature  of  the  case  it  could  not  but  be. 
We  are  bound  to  measure  the  significance  of  David's  lan- 
guage by  the  known  tenor  of  his  thoughts,  to  interpret  his 
words  by  the  plain  and  obvious  facts  of  his  life.  And,  thus 
interpreted,  the  seventy-second  Psalm  .  .  .  affords  the 
clearest  evidence,  that  with  the  divine  promise  of  a  son 
who  should  build  the  house  of  God,  there  was  associated  in 
the  mind  of  David  the  hope  of  a  greater  and  more  glorious 
king,  of  whose  dominion  it  shall  not  be  vain  and  meaning- 
less hyperbole  to  say  that  it  should  extend  from  sea  to  sea, 
and  from  the  river  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

You  will  notice  that  the  picture  presented  is  not 
the  picture  of  heaven.     The  scene  is  laid  here  upon 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  I  1 5 

the  earth.  The  sun  and  the  moon  still  hold  their 
places  in  the  heavens.  There  seem  to  be  stiil 
God's  needy  ones  to  be  relieved  and  delivered, 
and  still  wrongs  to  be  righted  and  oppressions  to 
be  avenged. 

It  is  not  exactly  the  picture  of  the  triumphant 
church  of  Christ,  with  its  worship,  its  spiritual  fel- 
lowship, its  accepted  faith,  and  its  songs  of  redeem- 
ing love,  although  this  may  be  said  to  be  included 
as  a  necessary  means  and  vital  part  of  that  changed 
earthly  condition  which  the  psalm  foretells. 

But  it  seems  to  be  the  revelation  of  a  new  social 
order,  of  a  moral  progress  and  revolution  among 
men  and  nations,  of  which  reformers  and  philan- 
thropists and  statesmen  and  sociologists  sometimes 
dream,  when  social  evils  shall  be  well-nigh  exter- 
minated, when  the  rights  of  all  men  shall  be  pro- 
tected, when  political  corruption  shall  be  unknown, 
when  the  government  shall  be  administered  in 
righteousness  and  equity,  and  the  people  in  rela- 
tion to  it  and  to  one  another  shall  be  actuated  by 
like  principles  of  righteousness,  and  charity  and 
great  prosperity  and  abundance  of  peace  shall 
everywhere  prevail ;  in  a  word,  it  is  the  realization 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  for  the  coming  of 
which  Christ  taught  his  disciples  to  pray,  the  con- 
ditions of  membership  in  which  he  laid  down  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  which  he  set  forth 
in  the  New  Testament  as  the  millennial  reign  of 


Il6  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

the  Messiah  among  all  nations,  in  the  homes,  the 
families,  the  business  and  social  life,  the  pursuits, 
the  legislation,  the  civil  institutions  of  men,  that 
whole  system  of  relations  and  duties  which  grow 
out  of  the  social  organism,  into  which  we  are  born 
and  in  which  we  live. 

As  has  been  said,  it  is  not  the  church  or 
churches  as  ecclesiastical  organizations,  that  are 
here  portrayed  ;  yet  it  is  these  churches  of  Christ, 
with  their  perpetual  proclamation  of  truth  and  in- 
tercession with  God  for  the  renewing  power  of  the 
divine  Spirit,  their  constant  inculcation  of  right 
principles,  and  their  mighty,  molding  influence 
upon  character  and  life,  the  continual  holding  forth 
of  the  lofty  personal  and  social  ideals  found  only 
in  the  gospel,  their  unceasing  activities  in  all  direc- 
tions, including  their  aggressive  missionary  opera- 
tions, which  reach  out  to  the  ends  of  the  earth — I 
say  it  is  these  churches  of  Christ,  as  they  embody 
his  spirit  and  follow  his  commands,  that  are  the 
necessary  means  in  bringing  about  that  changed 
social  order  which  the  psalmist  vividly  foretells  as 
a  future  realization. 

The  new  social  order  will  not  come  until  the  per- 
sonal units  of  life  are  brought  under  the  influence 
of  the  converting  Spirit  of  God  and  his  enlighten- 
ing truth.  You  cannot  have  a  regenerated  society 
until  the  men  who  compose  it  are  themselves  re- 
generated.     The  divine  leaven  is  necessary  for  the 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  I  1 7 

leavening  of  the  whole  lump.  Legislation  is  good, 
inasmuch  as  it  registers  and  makes  effective  any- 
advance  in  moral  sentiment.  Discussion,  agitation, 
instruction  along  sociological  lines,  are  of  value  as 
they  hold  up  the  true  ideals  and  point  out  the  cor- 
rect means  of  their  attainment ;  if  they  do  not, 
they  are  so  much  wasted  energy.  The  divine 
kingdom  will  come  on  earth  only  by  the  divine 
methods.  The  new  social  order  will  result  only 
from  the  new  individual  disposition  and  life.  The 
church  of  Jesus  Christ  has,  in  its  divine  message  of 
truth  and  its  essential  missionary  spirit,  the  secret 
of  all  permanent  social  progress,  and  of  the  re- 
organization of  the  world. 

Dr.  James  S.  Dennis,  in  his  able  work,  "  Chris- 
tian Missions  and  Social  Progress,"  says  : 

Christianity  being  sociological  in  its  scope,  Christian  mis- 
sions must  be  so  considered,  for  their  one  purpose  is  to 
propagate  Christianity,  and  bring  it  into  touch  with  the  in- 
dividual heart  and  with  the  associate  life  of  man.  It  seems 
impossible  to  deny  to  missions  a  social  scope  of  immense 
significance.  They  deal  with  the  individual,  and  through 
him  reach  society.  If  they  change  the  religious  convictions 
and  the  moral  character  of  the  man,  they  put  him  at  once 
into  a  new  attitude  toward  the  domestic,  civil,  economic, 
and  ethical  aspects  of  society.  If  they  put  the  individual 
right  with  God,  they  will  necessarily  transform  his  attitude 
toward  man  into  harmony  with  Christian  teaching.  They 
introduce  also  new  institutions  into  the  social  life  of  man- 
kind— not  simply  new  ecclesiastical  organizations,  but  new 
educational  and  philanthropic  movements,    and  they  also 


I  1 8  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

plant  the  germs  of  new  political  and  industrial  ideals,  and 
open  a  new  realm  of  intellectual  and  religious  thought, 
which  is  focused  in  a  wonderful  way  upon  a  new  conception 
of  liberty  and  a  purer  and  nobler  social  life. 

"  Give  the  king  thy  judgments,  O  God,  and  thy 
righteousness  unto  the  king's  Son";  let  Christ 
reign  in  the  hearts  of  all  citizens,  let  his  Spirit 
"  come  down  like  rain  upon  the  mown  grass,  as 
showers  that  water  the  earth";  then  shall  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  be  among  us  ;  then  the  right- 
eous shall  multiply  and  flourish  in  every  land  ; 
then  there  shall  be  a  universal  reign  of  personal 
holiness  and  civic  righteousness  and  peace  so  long 
as  the  moon  endureth.  This  is  the  prophetic  vision 
and  the  glorious  promise  contained  in  the  psalm. 

Jesus  shall  reign  where'  er  the  sun 
Does  his  successive  journeys  run  : 
His  kingdom  stretch  from  shore  to  shore, 
Till  moons  shall  wax  and  wane  no  more. 

For  him  shall  endless  prayer  be  made, 
And  praises  throng  to  crown  his  head, 
His  name  like  sweet  perfume  shall  rise 
With  every  morning  sacrifice. 

People  and  realms  of  every  tongue 
Dwell  on  his  love  with  sweetest  song  ; 
And  infant  voices  shall  proclaim 
Their  early  blessings  on  his  name. 

Blessings  abound  where'  er  he  reigns  ; 
The  prisoner  leaps  to  loose  his  chains  ; 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  II9 

The  weary  find  eternal  rest, 

And  all  the  sons  of  want  are  blest. 

Let  every  creature  rise  and  bring 
Peculiar  honors  to  our  King  ; 
Angels  descend  with  songs  again, 
And  earth  repeat  the  loud  Amen  ! 


CHAPTER  VI 
PSALM  XLV 


VI 

This    psalm    is    altogether    unique. 
Psalm  XLV    _,         \         ...        ... b  ..  ,, 

there  is  nothing  like  it  among  all 

the  other  psalms.  It  appears  to  be,  and  it  un- 
doubtedly is,  a  marriage  song,  an  epithalamium  of 
great  beauty  and  purity.  It  was  undoubtedly  com- 
posed to  celebrate  the  marriage  of  a  Jewish  king 
with  a  royal  bride,  apparently  of  foreign  birth. 
This  was  evidently  its  primary  purpose  and  appli- 
cation. It  was  as  when  England's  poet  laureate 
celebrated  the  nuptials  of  the  prince  of  Wales  and 
the  coming  of  Denmark's  worthy  princess  into  the 
royal  family  of  Great  Britain  ;  only  the  language 
of  the  psalm  is  more  beautiful  than  anything  that 
Tennyson,  though  in  some  respects  the  greatest 
poet  of  this  century,  ever  wrote. 

The  inspired  psalmist  evidently  felt  himself  car- 
ried aloft  by  his  theme,  and  in  some  way  specially 
qualified  for  the  delicate  and  joyous  service  which 
he  was  prompted  to  undertake.  In  the  opening 
verse  of  the  psalm  he  declares  :  "My  heart  is  indit- 
ing [or  overflowing  with]  a  good  matter :  I  am 
speaking ;  my  work  is  for  a  King ;  my  tongue  is 
the  pen  of  a  ready  writer"  This  verse  contains  the 
dedication  of  the  psalm  to  the  royal  person  who  is 

*23 


124  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

its  subject,  and  also  claims  that  it  was  truly  inspired 
by  him.  As  another  has  paraphrased  the  lan- 
guage :  "  My  poem,  the  work  or  creation  of  my 
imagination,  is  for  a  king,  is  dedicated  to  and  in- 
spired by  him." 

The  authorship  of  the  psalm  is  unknown,  and  its 
title  is  very  perplexing.  The  word  "Shoshannim" 
means  lilies,  and  probably  denotes  some  musical 
instrument,  which  was  called  by  that  name,  and 
bore  some  resemblance  to  that  flower  in  its  shape. 
Some  have  understood  the  word  to  apply,  in  part, 
to  the  subject  of  the  psalm,  the  royal  bride,  the 
lily  being  taken  as  the  emblem  of  pure  and  lovely 
womanhood,  especially  at  the  time  of  its  espousals. 
The  latter  part  of  the  title  is  eminently  appropri- 
ate. It  is  "a  song  of  love,"  of  pure  and  holy 
love,  human  and  also,  as  will  be  made  evident,  di- 
vine. 

There  is  great  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  the 
primary  and  contemporary  reference  of  the  psalm. 
The  oldest  and  most  generally  accepted  theory  is 
that  it  refers  to  the  marriage  of  Solomon  with  the 
daughter  of  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt.  But  Hup- 
feld,  Hitzig,  Delitzsch,  and  others,  take  different 
views  from  this,  and  from  each  other,  and  seek  in 
various  directions  to  find  some  historic  event  to 
which  the  psalm  can  be  appropriately  applied.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  explain  these  views,  for  the  rea- 
sons urged  for  their  support  do  not  seem  to  be  con- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 25 

elusive,  but  rather  conjectural  and  open  to  serious 
objections.  Indeed,  the  reference  to  Solomon  and 
his  marriage  to  Pharaoh's  daughter  is  not  abso- 
lutely certain,  but  only  a  probable  interpretation 
in  the  minds  of  those  who  hold  the  view. 

One  strong  reason  urged  against  it  is,  as  the  late 
Prof.  O.  S.  Stearns  has  said,  "the  martial  character 
of  the  reign  which  the  psalmist  pictures,  combined 
with  the  absence  of  any  reference  to  Egypt."  In 
the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  verses  we  read  these 
words,  addressed  to  the  king  :  "  Gird  thy  sword 
upon  thy  thigh,  0  most  Mighty,  with  thy  glory  and 
thy  majesty.  And  in  thy  majesty  ride  prosperously, 
because  of  truth  and  meekness  and  righteousness  ; 
and  thy  right  hand  shall  teach  thee  terrible  things. 
Thine  arrows  are  sharp  in  the  heart  of  the  King  s 
enemies  ;    zvheredy  the  people  fall  under  thee." 

Solomon  could  hardly  be  called  a  warlike  king. 
His  reign  was  rather  distinguished  for  its  peace  and 
luxury.  It  may  be  that  the  psalmist  blended  the 
local  picture  with  the  prophetic  picture,  and  saw  in 
vision  the  mighty  triumphs  of  the  Messiah  King, 
as  like  a  warrior  he  should  march  on  from  victory 
to  victory,  and  his  enemies  should  fall  before  his 
irresistible  power.  This  portraiture  of  the  coming 
Messiah  is  not  unusual  in  the  psalms  and  prophets, 
and  this  blending  of  history  and  prophecy,  of  the 
present  and  the  future,  of  the  earthly  and  the  spir- 
itual, of  the  visible   reign   of  the   earthly  king  and 


126  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

the  blessed  triumphs  of  King  Immanuel,  is  by  no 
means  a  strange  occurrence.  It  was  so  easy  for 
the  prophet  to  expand  the  little  historic  incident 
into  the  large,  rich,  and  glorious  description  of  the 
power  and  splendor  and  world-wide  dominion  of 
the  King  that  was  to  be. 

At  any  rate,  it  may  be  said  that  this  psalm  fits 
into  the  experience  of  Solomon,  and  his  marriage 
to  Pharaoh's  daughter,  and  the  characteristics  of 
his  reign,  better  than  into  anything  else.  Perowne 
has  said  : 

On  the  whole,  the  general  character  of  the  psalm,  de- 
scribing as  it  does  the  majesty  and  persuasive  eloquence  of 
the  king,  the  splendor  of  his  appearance  and  of  his  palace, 
and  the  hopes  which  he  raised  for  the  future,  is  such  as  to 
make  it  more  justly  applicable  to  Solomon  than  to  any 
other  of  the  Jewish  monarchs,  so  far  as  we  are  acquainted 
with  their  fortunes.  Nor  is  it  necessarily  an  objection  to 
this  view,  that  the  monarch  of  the  psalm  is  spoken  of  as  a 
warrior,  while  Solomon  was  peculiarly  "a  man  of  peace." 
Something  must  be  allowed  to  poetry.  [And  he  might 
have  added,  as  I  have  said,  to  the  spirit  and  nature  of 
prophecy.]  An  extended  dominion  would  naturally  be  as- 
sociated with  ideas  of  conquest.  And,  with  the  recollec- 
tion of  his  father's  exploits  fresh  in  his  mind,  the  poet 
could  not  but  regard  warlike  virtues  as  essential  to  the  glory 
of  the  son.  Besides,  Solomon  himself  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  deficient  in  military  spirit. 

It  should  be  said  that  Dean  Stanley  found  in 
this  psalm  simply  a  reference  to  King  Solomon, 
and  no   reference  whatever  to  the   Messiah  King, 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 27 

though  he  appears  to  have  done  it  in  defiance  of 
the  obvious  translation  of  the  original  Hebrew,  and 
of  the  distinct  reference  of  the  psalm  to  Christ  in 
the  New  Testament.  On  the  other  hand,  another 
able  English  interpreter,  Sadler,  in  an  elaborate 
comparison  of  the  language  of  the  psalm  with  the 
history  of  Solomon  and  of  Christ,  in  parallel  col- 
umns, has  undertaken  to  show  that  its  reference  is 
exclusively  to  Christ  and  not  at  all  to  Solomon.  In 
this  view  he  follows  the  great  Church  Fathers.  He 
says : 

A  very  cursory  examination  will  serve  to  convince  the 
reader  that  if  this  psalm  be  written  of  Solomon,  it  must 
have  been  written  as  a  satire.  There  is  not  a  single  image 
employed  by  the  poet,  the  reality  of  which,  when  applied 
to  Solomon,  does  not  miserably  fail.  .  .  There  is  not  the 
smallest  historical  evidence  for  connecting  this  psalm  with 
Solomon. 

The  middle  view  is  undoubtedly  the  true  one, 
and  is  taken  by  almost  all  modern  interpreters,  viz, 
that  white  this  psalm  did  have  a  local  reference, 
though  scholars  are  not  entirely  agreed  as  to  what 
it  was,  it  also  pointed  forward  to  Christ,  his  per- 
sonal character  and  reign,  his  kingly  glory  and 
power,  and  to  the  beauty  and  excellence  of  his 
church,  which  was  to  be  his  spiritual  bride,  and 
also  to  the  multiplication  and  increasing  influence 
of  his  disciples,  by  whom  his  name  and  his  fame 
should  be  spread  abroad   in  all  the  earth.      It  is  a 


128  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

beautiful,  significant,  Oriental  use  of  language,  and 
as  will  be  seen,  is  entirely  in  harmony  with  other 
passages  of  Scripture. 

In  studying  prophecy  it  is  wise  to  remember  the 
profoundly  philosophical  remark  of  Doctor  Ar- 
nold : 

Every  prophecy  has,  according  to  the  very  definition  of 
the  word,  a  double  sense  ;  it  has,  if  I  may  venture  so  to 
speak,  two  authors,  the  one  human,  the  other  divine. 

The  admirable  paragraph  of  Perowne  is  worthy 
of  quotation.  After  speaking  of  the  primary  ref- 
erence of  the  psalm  to  Solomon,  he  adds: 

But  a  greater  than  Solomon  is  here.  Evident  as  it  is 
that  much  of  the  language  of  the  poem  is  only  properly 
applicable  to  the  circumstances  of  the  royal  nuptials  which 
occasioned  it,  it  is  no  less  evident  that  much  of  it  greatly 
transcends  them.  The  outward  glory  of  Solomon  was  but 
a  type  and  a  foreshadowing  of  a  better  glory  to-be  revealed. 
Israel' s  true  king  was  not  David  or  Solomon,  but  One  of 
whom  they,  at  the  best,  were  only  faint  and  transient  im- 
ages. A  righteous  One  was  yet  to  come,  who  should  indeed 
rule  in  truth  and  equity,  who  should  fulfill  all  the  hopes 
which  one  human  monarch  after  another,  however  fair  the 
promise  of  his  reign,  had  disappointed,  and  whose  king- 
dom, because  it  was  a  righteous  kingdom,  should  endure 
forever.  Such  a  ruler  would,  indeed,  be  the  vicegerent  of 
God.  In  such  an  one,  and  by  such  an  one,  God  would 
reign.  He  would  be  of  the  seed  of  David,  and  yet  more 
glorious  than  all  his  fellows  ;  human,  and  yet  above  men.  It 
was  because  of  this  wonderfully  close  and  real  relation  be- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  I  20, 

tween  God  and  man — a  relation  which  the  true  king  would 
visibly  symbolize — that  the  psalmist  could  address  him  as 
God.  In  him  God  and  man  would  in  some  mysterious 
manner  meet.  This,  perhaps,  he  did  see  ;  more  than  this 
he  could  not  see.  The  mystery  of  the  incarnation  was  not 
yet  revealed.  But  David  knew  that  God  had  made  man  to 
be  but  little  short  of  divine.1  And  he  and  others,  full  of 
hopes,  the  very  greatness  of  which  made  them  indistinct, 
uttered  them  in  words  that  went  far  beyond  themselves. 

In  support  of  this  Messianic  import  and  applica- 
tion of  the  psalm  the  following  reasons  may  be 
presented,  which  taken  together  can  leave  no 
doubt  in  the  mind. 

First,  it  may  be  said  that  this  is  the  most  ancient 
and  almost  unanimous  interpretation.  Jews  and 
Christians  are  agreed.  Aben-Ezra  says  :  "This 
psalm  treats  of  David,  or  rather  of  his  son  Messiah, 
for  that  is  his  name,2  '  And  David  my  servant  shall 
be  their  prince  forever.'  "  The  Chaldee  paraphrast 
on  the  second  verse  writes  :  "Thy  beauty,  O  King 
Messiah,  is  greater  than  that  of  the  sons  of  men." 
Kimchi  and  Mendelssohn  so  refer  it.  This  in- 
terpretation is  not  a  modern  or  a  Christian  discov- 
ery. It  is  the  ancient  tradition  of  Hebrew  scholar- 
ship. 

Secondly,  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  place  of 
this  psalm  in  the  sacred  Hebrew  Psalter  is  evidence 
that  it  was  more  than  a  song  of  human  love.      I  do 

1  Ps.  8  :  5.  2Ezek.  34  :  24. 

I 


I30  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

not  speak  depreciatingly  of  human  affection.  The 
relation  between  true  husband  and  wife  is  sacred, 
and  is  of  divine  appointment.  The  domestic  tie 
and  the  domestic  joy  are  the  highest  on  earth. 
The  words  "home"  and  "family"  stand  next  to 
"heaven"  in  their  holy  significance.  The  mar- 
riage of  two  souls,  who  have  been  bound  together 
by  the  cords  of  a  pure  and  unchanging  affection, 
is  one  of  the  most  solemn  as  well  as  joyous  transac- 
tions that  can  enter  into  human  life,  and  has  been 
thought  worthy  by  Christ  himself  to  symbolize  the 
relation  between  him  and  his  people.  It  makes 
no  difference  whether  that  union  be  consummated 
in  the  royal  family  or  among  the  humblest  sub- 
jects, in  ivory  palaces  or  under  a  thatched  roof. 
The  rite  may  be  equally  sacred,  and  the  union  of 
hearts  equally  pure  and  worthy  of  the  divine  bene- 
diction. The  wedding  is  a  suitable  service  for  the 
temple  of  God,  and  the  wedding  march  is  not  in- 
appropriate music  to  resound  within  its  consecrated 
walls.  The  Song  of  Solomon  has  been  thought  fit 
to  be  included  in  the  canon  of  the  holy  Scriptures. 
Were  this  psalm  simply  a  song  of  human  love  and 
a  picture  of  domestic  joy,  it  might  not  be  un- 
worthy to  be  preserved  in  the  sacred  literature  of  a 
nation. 

But  the  Psalms  are  uniformly  expressions  of 
adoration  to  God  and  of  religious  emotion.  They 
are  vocal  with  the  penitence,  the  humility,  the  faith, 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 3  I 

the  love,  the  joy,  the  hope  of  their  writers,  and  of 
the  people  who  consecrated  them  to  the  uses 
of  worship.  They  were  sung  in  the  service  of  the 
sanctuary.  The  Jews  of  old,  like  the  Christians  of 
to-day,  were  ever  anticipating  the  felicity  and 
glorious  triumph  of  God's  coming  kingdom.  Their 
faces  were  toward  the  future,  a  future  that  was  to 
them  radiant  with  the  Messianic  hope.  And  the 
existence  of  this  hymn  in  the  midst  of  their  sacred 
songs  is  presumptive  evidence  that  it  had  to  them 
a  deeply  religious  import,  even  as  their  own  writers 
have  declared,  and  that  whenever  it  was  sung  their 
thoughts  leaped  forth  from  the  transient  event 
that  may  have  been  its  occasion  to  the  glorious 
fulfillment  of  their  dearest  hopes,  from  the  earthly 
bridegroom  clothed  with  regal  splendor  to  the  di- 
vine King  of  infinitely  superior  grace  and  power, 
from  the  fair  human  princess  adopted  from  a  for- 
eign land  to  the  spotless  bride  whom  the  Messiah 
King  would  one  day  take  to  himself  to  be  his  for- 
ever. 

Thirdly,  the  inspired  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  fixes  the  Messianic  character  of  the  psalm 
and  its  application  to  Christ,  beyond  a  question  or 
a  doubt.  In  the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  the 
language  of  the  sixth  and  seventh  verses  of  the 
psalm  is  quoted  as  distinctly  referring  to  Christ  : 
"  Hut  unto  the  Son  he  saith,  thy  throne,  O  God,  is 
forever  and  ever  ;  a  sceptre  of  righteousness  is  the 


132  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

sceptre  of  thy  kingdom.  Thou  hast  loved  right- 
eousness and  hated  iniquity;  therefore  God,  even 
thy  God,  hath  anointed  thee  with  the  oil  of  glad- 
ness above  thy  fellows."  The  writer  of  the  Epistle 
is  showing  the  superiority  of  Christ,  the  divine  Son, 
to  the  angels,  both  in  person  and  in  office  ;  and 
in  proof  of  that  superiority  he  quotes  the  psalm- 
ist's words  as  evidence  which  the  Hebrews  would 
not  dispute,  of  Christ's  divinity  and  supremacy, 
and  the  righteous  and  endless  character  of  his 
reign.  The  argument  is  unfolded  by  Ebrard  as 
follows  : 

Three  things  are  declared  of  the  ideal  of  a  theocratic 
King — consequently  of  the  Messiah,  (a)  he  is  Elohim,  his 
authority  is  the  authority  of  God  himself  ;  (b)  his  dominion 
is  endless  ;  (c)  both  are  true  because  he  perfectly  fulfills 
the  will  of  God.  The  perfect  theocratic  King — therefore 
Christ  [which  required  no  proofs  for  the  readers  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews]  stands  in  this  three-fold  relation 
above  the  angels.  He  is  the  absolute  revelation  of  God, 
and  therefore  himself  God  ;  the  angels  are  only  servants. 
He  is  King  of  an  imperishable  kingdom  ;  the  angels  exe- 
cute only  periodical  commands.  He  rules  in  a  moral  way 
as  founder  of  a  kingdom  of  righteousness,  and  his  whole 
dignity  as  Messiah  is  founded  directly  on  his  moral  and 
spiritual  relation  to  man  ;  the  angels  are  only  mediators  of 
outward  appearances  of  nature,  by  which  a  rude,  unsuscep- 
tible people  are  to  be  trained  for  higher  things. 

The  whole  argument,  it  will  be  noticed,  is  piv- 
oted upon  the  intended  and  acknowledged  applica- 


THE    MESSIAH    IX    THE    PSALMS  1 33 

bility  of  the  psalm  to  Christ,  the  Messiah  King. 
"But  unto  the  Son  he  saith,  Thy  throne,  O  God,  is 
for  ever  and  ever  :  a  sceptre  of  righteousness  is  the 
sceptre  of  thy  kingdom." 

Fourthly,  the  language  of  the  psalm  can  be 
truthfully  employed  only  of  Christ,  the  Messiah 
King  and  the  faithful  Bridegroom  of  the  people  of 
God.  Some  of  the  language,  as  has  been  said, 
would  easily  find  its  application  to  some  earthly 
royal  bridegroom  and  his  splendid  wedding  ;  but 
much  of  it  demands  an  object  superior  to  any  hu- 
man prince  and  his  regal  nuptials.  No  allowance 
for  Oriental  extravagance  can  explain  it.  There  is 
a  precision  and  defmiteness  about  it,  that  seems  to 
determine  its  application  to  the  Messiah  King,  the 
Prince  of  the  House  of  the  Spiritual  Israel,  and 
true  Son  of  God.  "  Thou  art  fairer  than  the  chil- 
dren of  men  ;  grace  is  poured  into  thy  lips  ;  there- 
fore God  hath  blessed  thee  forever."  These  words 
contain  an  acknowledgment  of  a  beauty  and  elo- 
quence, blessedness  and  perfection,  more  than  hu- 
man. They  remind  us  of  the  descriptive  language 
of  the  Gospels  :  "Grace  and  truth  came  by  Jesus 
Christ,"  "They  wondered  at  the  gracious  words 
which  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth,"  "Never  man 
spake  like  this  man,"  and  of  the  striking  words  of 
Saint  Paul,  "  Christ  came,  who  is  over  all,  God 
blessed  for  ever." 

But   the  king  here  described   is  not  only  fairer 


134  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

than  all  the  sons  of  men,  his  lips  being  filled  with 
wonderful  wisdom  and  grace,  but  he  is  to  be 
mighty  in  battle  ;  indeed  he  is  to  be  almighty,  and 
the  nations  are  to  be  subdued  by  him.  He  is  to 
gird  on  his  sword  with  glory  and  majesty,  and  ride 
on  prosperously,  not  to  acquire  extent  of  territory 
and  glittering  renown,  but  "  in  behalf  of  truth  and 
meekness  and  righteousness,"  an  unparalleled  com- 
bination of  motives  in  any  earthly  conqueror,  to 
uphold  the  truth,  and  extend  the  reign  of  meek- 
ness and  righteousness  among  men.  Such  motives 
are  found  only  in  his  breast  who  confessed  to  Pilate 
his  kingly  character,  saying,  "  To  this  end  was  I 
born,  and  for  this  cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that 
I  should  bear  witness  unto  the  truth,"  and  whose 
kingdom  rested  upon  such  sublime  and  unworldly 
beatitudes  as  these  :  "  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for 
they  shall  inherit  the  earth"  and  "Blessed  are 
they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteous- 
ness, for  they  shall  be  filled."  Such  conquests  are 
made,  and  such  subjects  are  won,  only  by  him  who 
is  the  princely  Captain  of  the  world's  salvation  and 
its  Deliverer  from  the  pride  and  unrighteousness  of 
the  human  heart  ;  and  his  arrows,  which  are  sharp 
in  the  hearts  of  his  enemies,  may  well  be  the  sharp 
arrows  of  conviction  sent  from  the  bow  of  divine 
truth,  which  is  the  mighty  weapon  employed  in  all 
his  conquests. 

Moreover,  we  must  all  agree  with  the  writer  of 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 35 

the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  that  the  ascription  of 
adoration  and  praise,  "  Thy  throne,  0  God,  is  for  ever 
and  ever:  the  sceptre  of  thy  kingdom  is  a  sceptre 
of  righteousness,"  cannot  refer  to  any  earthly 
prince,  but  only  to  Prince  Immanucl,  who  does 
indeed  love  righteousness  and  hate  wickedness, 
whose  government  has  its  foundations  laid  in  right- 
eousness, in  the  most  regal  of  all  principles,  which 
is  the  essential  foundation  of  a  kingdom  and  an 
empire  which  are  to  be  without  end.  The  psalm- 
ist says,  "  Therefore  God,  thy  God,  hath  anointed 
thee  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above  thy  fellows," 
that  is,  thou  art  blessed  of  God  above  all  thy  fel- 
low princes  ;  above  all  earthly  kings  ;  and  the 
Apostle  Paul  says,  "  Wherefore  God  also  hath 
highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name  that  is 
above  every  name,  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every 
knee  should  bow,  .  .  and  every  tongue  should  con- 
fess that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord  to  the  glory  of  God 
the  Father." 

It  is  impossible  to  read  the  description  of  the 
king  in  the  psalm  as  possessing  more  than  human 
grace  and  beauty,  as  a  victorious  warrior,  as  a 
righteous  sovereign,  as  a  bridegroom  arrayed  for 
his  approaching  marriage  and  surrounded  by  the 
praises  of  an  exultant  people,  without  recalling 
the  vision,  recorded  in  Rev.  19,  of  One  who  is  de- 
clared to  be  "  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords," 
who  is  both  king  and  warrior  and  bridegroom,  and 


I36  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

whose  victories  and  whose  marriage  call  forth  the 
loudest  and  most  jubilant  praises  : 

I  heard  a  great  voice  of  much  people  in  heaven,  saying, 
Alleluia  ;  salvation,  and  glory,  and  honor,  and  power,  unto 
the  Lord  our  God  :  for  true  and  righteous  are  his  judg- 
ments. .  .  And  I  heard  as  it  were  the  voice  of  a  great  mul- 
titude, and  as  the  voice  of  many  waters,  and  as  the  voice 
of  mighty  thunderings,  saying,  Alleluia  ;  for  the  Lord  God 
omnipotent  reigneth.  Let  us  be  glad  and  rejoice,  and  give 
honor  to  him  ;  for  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  is  come,  and 
his  wife  hath  made  herself  ready. 

It  will  not  do  to  undertake  to  find  some  spiritual, 
symbolic  meaning  in  all  the  verses  of  the  psalm, 
for  some  of  the  language,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
parables  of  our  Lord,  is  but  beautiful  drapery. 
But  the  appearance  and  character  of  the  bride,  no 
less  than  the  person  and  dignity  of  the  royal  Bride- 
groom, are  clearly  portrayed  by  the  inspired  writer 
in  language  applicable  to  the  church  of  Christ. 
She  is  to  be  of  exalted  character  and  of  great 
spiritual  loveliness,  queenly  in  her  rank  and  queenly 
in  the  purity  and  excellence  of  her  spirit,  the 
fitting  bride  of  a  kingly  Groom.  "  Upon  thy 
right  hand  did  stand  the  queen  in  gold  of  Ophir. 
Hearken,  0  daughter,  and  consider,  and  incline 
thine  ear."  Listen  to  the  gracious  words  of  in- 
struction and  invitation  that  fall  from  his  lips. 
"  Forget  also  thine  own  people,  and  thy  father's 
house."      "Come   out  from  among  them,   and    be 


T 1 1  E    M  ESS  I A 1 1    IN    T  HE    1 SA  I.MS  I  3  7 

ye  separate."  "Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead." 
"  Take  up  thy  cross,  and  follow  me,  so  shalt  thou 
be  my  disciple."  "  So  shall  the  king  greatly  desire 
thy  beauty."  "Even  as  Christ  also  loved  the 
church,  and  gave  himself  for  it,  that  he  might 
sanctify  and  cleanse  it  with  the  washing  of  water 
by  the  word,  that  he  might  present  it  to  himself  a 
glorious  church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any 
such  thing  ;  but  that  it  should  be  holy  and  without 
blemish."  "  For  he  is  thy  Lord ;  and  zvorship  thou 
him."  Thy  groom  and  also  thy  Lord  ;  to  receive 
thy  love  and  confidence,  and  at  the  same  time  thy 
homage,  thy  obedience,  thy  sincere  adoration. 
The  queen's  robes  are  no  less  beautiful  and  costly 
than  the  robes  of  the  king.  When  the  bright  wed- 
ding day  shall  come,  Zion  shall  put  on  her  beau- 
tiful garments,  and  it  will  be  found  that  the  Lamb's 
wife  has  made  herself  ready.  "  The  kings  daughter" 
says  the  psalmist,  "  is  all  glorious  within  ;  her  cloth- 
ing is  of  wrought  gold.  She  shall  be  brought  unto 
the  king  in  raiment  of  needlework."  "And  to  her 
was  granted,"  says  the  writer  of  the  book  of  Reve- 
lation, "that  she  should  be  arrayed  in  fine  linen, 
clean  and  white  ;  for  the  fine  linen  is  the  righteous- 
ness of  saints."  "But  we  all,"  says  Saint  Paul, 
"with  open  face  beholding  as  in  a  glass  the  glory 
of  the  Lord,  are  changed  into  the  same  image  from 
glory  to  glory  even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord." 
"  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,"  says 


I38  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Saint  John,  "  but  we  know  that  when  he  shall  ap- 
pear we  shall  be  like  him,  for  we  shall  see  him  as 
he  is."  All  these  striking  phrases  set  forth  the  fit- 
ness, the  worthiness,  the  spiritual  likeness  of  the 
bride  of  Christ. 

The  robe  of  the  bride  and  the  robe  of  the  groom 
shall  be  of  the  same  piece,  of  like  fineness  and 
beauty  and  splendor,  woven  of  the  same  material 
and  in  the  same  loom,  resplendent  with  the  glory 
of  perfect  righteousness.  Christ  is  "made  unto  us 
wisdom  and  righteousness,  sanctification  and  re- 
demption." "  He  became  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no 
sin,  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of 
God  in  him."  Oh,  wondrous  grace !  Oh,  blessed 
hope!  In  the  prophetic  psalm  we  read,  "The 
king's  daughter  is  all  glorious  within  ;  her  clothing 
is  of  wrought  gold.  She  shall  be  brought  unto  the 
king  in  raiment  of  needlework."  And  the  prophet 
of  the  New  Testament  tells  us:  "She  shall  be 
arrayed  in  fine  linen,  clean  and  white  ;  for  the  fine 
linen  is  the  righteousness  of  saints." 

A  fifth  and  last  reason  for  accepting  the  Messi- 
anic import  of  this  psalm  is  found  in  the  fact  al- 
ready suggested  that  the  portrayal  of  the  coming 
Messiah  as  a  kingly  bridegroom  is  in  harmony  with 
other  representations  of  the  sacred  writings,  both 
in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  New.  Indeed, 
this  seems  to  have  been  a  favorite  figure  employed 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  set  forth  the   relations   be- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 39 

tween  God  and  his  people,  and  between  Christ  and 
his  followers.  Isaiah  says  : '  "  For  thy  Mak'er  is 
thine  husband  ;  the  Lord  of  hosts  is  his  name,  and 
thy  Redeemer  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  ;  the  God  of 
the  whole  earth  shall  he  be  called."  And  again 
the  same  prophet  says  :2  "Thou  shalt  no  more  be 
termed  forsaken  ;  neither  shall  thy  land  any  more 
be  termed  desolate  ;  but  thou  shalt  be  called  Heph- 
zibah,  and  thy  land  Beulah  ;  for  the  Lord  delight- 
eth  in  thee,  and  thy  land  shall  be  married.  For  as 
a  young  man  marrieth  a  virgin,  so  shall  thy  Builder 
[or  Maker]  marry  thee ;  and  as  the  bridegroom  re- 
joiceth  over  the  bride,  so  shall  thy  God  rejoice  over 
thee."  God  said  to  his  ancient  people  by  the 
mouth  of  his  prophet,  Fzekiel  : 3  "  Now  when  I 
passed  by  thee,  and  looked  upon  thee,  behold,  thy 
time  was  the  time  of  love  ;  and  I  spread  my  skirt 
over  thee,  and  covered  thy  nakedness  ;  yea,  I  sware 
unto  thee,  and  entered  into  a  covenant  with  thee 
[which  is  equivalent  to  saying,  '  I  plighted  thee  my 
troth"],  saith  the  Lord  God,  and  thou  becamest 
mine,"  and  then  in  true  Fastern  language  he  pro- 
ceeded in  the  subsequent  verses  to  describe  the 
loving  attentions  which  he  had  bestowed  upon  his 
people,  even  as  a  husband  adorns  and  enriches  his 
bride  with  beautiful  and  costly  gifts.  In  like  man- 
ner God  speaks  by  his  prophet,    Hosea,4  saying  : 

1  54  :  5.  2  62  :  4,  5.  3  16  :  8.  *  2  :  19,  20. 


I4O  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

"And  I  will  betroth  thee  unto  me  for  ever;  yea,  I 
will  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  righteousness,  and  in 
judgment,  and  in  lovingkindness,  and  in  mercies,  I 
will  even  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  faithfulness  :  and 
thou  shalt  know  the  Lord."  Through  two  whole 
chapters  the  prophet  sets  forth  under  this  figure  the 
unchanging  love  of  God  and  the  wicked  unfaithful- 
ness of  the  people. 

Turning  to  the  New  Testament  we  find  Christ 
suggesting  the  same  truth  in  the  parable  of  the 
marriage  of  the  king's  son,1  and  in  the  parable  of 
the  ten  virgins  who  went  forth  to  meet  the  bride- 
groom,2 he  himself  being  the  Son  of  the  supreme 
King,  whose  marriage  was  to  be  celebrated,  and 
the  divine  Bridegroom,  for  whose  return  all  men 
should  be  found  watching  when  the  cry  rings  out, 
"Behold,  the  bridegroom  cometh."  He  also  said, 
speaking  of  himself  and  his  disciples,  "  Can  the 
children  of  the  bridechamber  mourn  as  long  as  the 
bridegroom  is  with  them  ?  But  the  days  will  come 
when  the  bridegroom  shall  be  taken  from  them, 
and  then  shall  they  fast."  John  the  Baptist  em- 
ployed the  same  figure  to  express  his  appreciation 
of  the  character  of  Christ,  and  in  a  beautifully 
humble  way  his  relation  to  him.  "  He  that  hath 
the  bride  is  the  bridegroom  ;  but  the  friend  of  the 
bridegroom,  which  standeth  and  heareth  him,  re- 

1  Matt.  25  :  I,  seq.  2  Matt.  22  :  I,  seq. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  141 

joiceth  greatly  because  of  the  bridegroom's  voice  ; 
this  my  joy  therefore  is  fulfilled." 

The  Apostle  Paul  had  a  similar  thought  in  his 
mind  when  he  wrote  to  the  Corinthian  church,  in 
deepest  anxiety  for  their  spiritual  welfare.  "  For  I 
am  jealous  over  you  with  godly  jealousy  ;  for  I 
have  espoused  you  to  one  husband,  that  I  may 
present  you  as  a  chaste  virgin  to  Christ."  l 

And  certainly  none  of  us  can  ever  forget  that 
memorable  passage  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephe- 
sians,2  in  which  the  apostle,  feeling  that  he  but  half 
apprehended  the  great  truth  of  which  he  was 
speaking,  and  that  there  was  still  much  about  it 
that  was  mysterious,  makes  the  union  of  Christ  and 
his  church,  and  the  relation  between  them,  the 
basis  of  a  sacred  and  tender  appeal  for  domestic 
affection  and  the  most  intimate  and  thoughtful  and 
self-forgetting  attachment  between  husband  and 
wife  : 

For  the  husband  is  the  head  of  the  wife,  even  as  Christ 
is  the  head  of  the  church  ;  and  he  is  the  Saviour  of  the 
body.  Therefore  as  the  church  is  subject  unto  Christ,  so 
let  the  wives  be  to  their  own  husbands  in  everything. 
Husbands  love  your  wives,  even  as  Christ  also  loved  the 
church,  and  gave  himself  for  it  ;  that  he  might  sanctify  and 
cleanse  it  with  the  washing  of  water  by  the  word,  that  he 
might  present  it  to  himself  a  glorious  church,  not  having 
spot,  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing  ;    but  that  it  should  be 

1  2  Cor.  11:2.  J  5  :  22,  st'</. 


142  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

holy  and  without  blemish.  So  ought  men  to  love  their 
wives  as  their  own  bodies.  He  that  loveth  his  wife  loveth 
himself.  For  no  man  ever  yet  hated  his  own  flesh  ;  but 
nourisheth  and  cherisheth  it,  even  as  the  Lord  the  church. 
For  we  are  members  of  his  body,  of  his  flesh,  and  of  his 
bones.  For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and 
mother,  and  shall  be  joined  unto  his  wife,  and  they  two 
shall  be  one  flesh.  This  is  a  great  mystery  ;  but  I  speak 
concerning  Christ  and  the  church. 

We  too,  with  the  great  apostle,  may  not  be  able 
to  fathom  the  profound  depth  of  this  deep,  deep 
truth.  But  there  are  some  things  that  are  plain. 
The  force  of  the  apostle's  faithful  and  tender  ap- 
peal for  domestic  love  and  fidelity  depends  upon 
the  actual  relation  with  himself  into  which  Christ, 
the  loving,  thoughtful,  self-denying  Bridegroom, 
has  taken  his  people,  a  relation  of  mutual  affection, 
of  beautiful  regard,  of  costly  service,  of  sacred  fi- 
delity, and  of  indissoluble  attachment,  a  relation  as 
real  as  that  of  husband  and  wife,  of  two  souls  that 
have  been  made  one.  It  hardly  need  be  said  that 
all  domestic  infelicity  grows  out  of  a  forgetfulness  of 
the  mutual  obligations  involved  in  the  sacred  mar- 
riage tie,  and  that  all  Christian  unfaithfulness  is  the 
result  of  indifference  to  the  sublime  fact  of  revela- 
tion that  Christ  is  the  husband  of  his  church,  which 
he  loved  unto  death,  that  he  might  present  it  to 
himself  a  glorious  church,  holy  and  without  blem- 
ish. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  mar- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 43 

riage  of  the  Lamb  spoken  of  in  the  Apocalypse, 
and  the  robe  of  righteousness,  clean  and  white  as 
fine  linen,  in  which  the  chosen  bride  was  arrayed.1 
The  divinely  inspired  seer  could  find  no  more  ac- 
curate and  beautiful  language  in  which  to  describe 
the  glorious  city  of  the  redeemed,  than  this,  "And 
I,  John,  saw  the  holy  city,  New  Jerusalem,  coming 
down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  prepared  as  a  bride 
adorned  for  her  husband."  2  And  he  carried  the 
thought  through  to  the  very  end  of  Revelation, 
when  in  view  of  the  wonderful  unfolding  of  the  grace 
and  love  of  God  for  the  whole  human  race  in  the 
gospel  of  Christ,  he  uttered  his  final  word  in  the  form 
of  an  earnest  and  repeated  invitation  to  men  every- 
where, "And  the  Spirit  and  the  bride  say,  Come."  3 
It  is  the  inestimable  privilege  of  the  bride  of 
Christ,  as  an  expression  of  her  appreciation  of  his 
saving  love  and  power  and  of  her  sympathy  for  all 
the  lost  ones  for  whom  he  died,  to  join  her  voice 
in  the  grand  chorus  of  invitation,  which  is  never  to 
cease  until  the  world  shall  come  to  its  end.  Then 
it  will  be  seen  how  gloriously  true  are  John's  other 
words,  "Blessed  are  they  which  are  called  unto  the 
marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb."  4 

From  all  these  reasons  it  is  evident  that  this 
psalm  may  be  confidently  regarded  as  sketching 
typically  the  coming  Messiah  as  the  royal  Bridc- 

1  Rev.  19  :  7,  8.     2  Rev.  21  :  2.      s  Rev.  22  :  17.      *  Rev.  19  :  9. 


144  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

groom,  the  ever-living  and  ever-loving  Husband  of 
the  whole  church  of  God,  who  are  to  share  with 
him  the  everlasting  glory  and  the  joy  of  heaven's 
marriage  supper. 

The  following  words  are  borrowed  from  Pres- 
sense  : 

The  prophetic  form  is  essentially  symbolical.  The 
prophet  paints  the  future  with  the  lineaments  of  the  pres- 
ent, with  the  colors  and  the  imagery  furnished  by  the  coun- 
try and  the  age  to  which  he  belongs.  It  is  the  only  method 
by  which  he  can  be  understood.  The  customs  of  his  peo- 
ple, known  events,  compose  for  him  a  rich  and  brilliant 
language,  by  means  of  which  he  reproduces  the  revelations 
which  he  has  received. 

It  should  be  added  that  this  psalm,  after  echo- 
ing the  praises  of  the  kingly  bridegroom,  "his  more 
than  human  beauty,  his  persuasive  eloquence,  his 
might  and  prowess  in  war,  his  divine  Majesty  and 
the  righteousness  of  his  sway,"  and  giving  a  de- 
scription of  the  royal  bride,  her  beautiful  garments 
indicative  of  her  moral  and  spiritual  loveliness,  her 
virgin  companions  and  the  songs  of  wedding  joy 
as  the  procession  advances,  all  of  which  give  vivid- 
ness and  reality  to  the  picture,  concludes  with  a 
prophecy  of  the  increase  of  the  kingdom  of  the 
Messiah,  the  perpetuity  of  his  reign,  and  the 
princely  character  of  all  his  subjects.  "  Instead  of 
thy  fathers  shall  be  thy  children,  whom  thou  may  est 
make  princes   in  all  the  earth.      I  will  make   thy 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 45 

name  to  be  remembered  in  all  generations :  there- 
fore shall  the  people  praise  thee  for  ever  and  ever." 

Wellhausen  acknowledges  that  these  words  "ap- 
pear  to  refer  to  a  larger  kingdom  than  Israel  ever 
became." 

The  mixed  nature  of  the  psalm,  its  local  and 
also  its  prophetic  application,  is  apparent  in  these 
words  as  elsewhere.  Here  the  royal  marriage  is 
represented  as  resulting  in  a  princely  progeny  of 
wide  renown.  But  the  psalmist  is  borne  up  and 
beyond  the  little  local  event  and  its  consequences, 
and  is  led  to  use  language  which  can  only  refer  fit- 
tingly to  the  increase  and  duration  of  the  Redeem- 
er's kingdom.      Perowne  has  said  : 

The  sacred  poet  sees  the  earthly  king  and  the  human 
marriage  before  his  eyes,  but  whilst  he  strikes  his  harp  to 
celebrate  these,  a  vision  of  a  higher  glory  streams  in  upon 
him.  Thus  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly  mingle.  The  di- 
vine penetrates,  hallows,  goes  beyond  the  human  ;  but  the 
human  is  there. 

In  the  psalm  the  children  of  the  marriage  main- 
tain their  separate  existence.  In  the  gospel  the 
church's  increase  becomes  a  part  of  itself,  and  adds 
an  ever-expanding  beauty  and  glory  to  the  spiritual 
bride  of  Christ.  In  the  psalm  the  children  are  ex- 
alted to  be  "princes  in  all  the  earth."  In  the  gos- 
pel we  are  made  by  Christ  to  be  "kings  and  priests 
unto  God  and  his  Father."  In  the  psalm  it  is 
written,  "therefore  shall  the  people  praise  thee  for 

K 


I46  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

ever."  In  the  gospel  we  read,  "to  him  be  glory 
and  dominion  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen."  In 
psalm  and  gospel  we  have  the  picture  of  the  divine 
Bridegroom,  fairer  than  all  the  children  of  men, 
who  will  soon  come  to  claim  his  chosen  bride. 

Rejoice,  rejoice,  believers  ! 

And  let  your  lights  appear  ; 
The  shades  of  eve  are  thickening, 

And  darker  night  is  near  : 
The  Bridegroom  is  arising, 

And  soon  he  will  draw  nigh  ; 
Up  !  pray  and  watch  and  wrestle  ! 

At  midnight  comes  the  cry. 

O  wise  and  holy  virgins, 

Now  raise  your  voices  higher, 
Till  in  your  jubilations 

Ye  meet  the  angel  choir. 
The  marriage  feast  is  waiting, 

The  gates  wide  open  stand  ; 
Up,  up,  ye  heirs  of  glory  ! 

The  Bridegroom  is  at  hand. 

Our  hope  and  expectation, 

O  Jesus,  now  appear  ; 
Arise,  thou  Sun  so  longed  for, 

O'  er  this  benighted  sphere  ! 
With  hearts  and  hands  uplifted, 

We  plead,  O  Lord,  to  see 
The  day  of  earth' s  redemption, 

And  ever  be  with  thee. 


CHAPTER  VII 
PSALM  XLVI 


VII 


As  we  have  already  seen  in  our  study 
Psalm  XLVI  of  thc  ]VIossinnic  psalms,  there  arc 
some  psalms  in  which  the  Messiah  himself  is  repre- 
sented as  the  speaker,  for  instance,  2,  16,  and  22  ; 
and  there  are  others  in  which  he,  his  person,  his 
mission,  and  his  reign  are  distinctly  the  subject  of 
discourse,  as  is  apparent  from  their  language,  and 
from  the  quotations  made  from  them  by  New  Tes- 
tament writers.  Such  are  45,  72,  and  1 10.  Indeed, 
with  one  exception,  all  the  psalms  which  we  have 
considered  are  quoted  in  the  New  Testament  as  re- 
ferable to  Christ,  leaving  no  doubt  as  to  their  Mes- 
sianic bearing  and  import.  The  language  of  that 
one  exception  is  such  as  to  make  the  application 
no  less  certain. 

There  is  another  class  of  psalms,  somewhat 
numerous,  which  predict,  to  quote  the  words  of 
Professor  Hackett : 

The  universal  prevalence  of  the  worship  of  God,  the  ex- 
tension of  his  kingdom  among  all  nations,  and  the  promul- 
gation of  a  plan  of  mercy  in  which  all  mankind  are  to  par- 
ticipate. Such  predictions,  as  we  learn  from  other  passages 
in  the  Old  Testament  and  from  explanations  in  the  New, 
were  designed  to  be  accomplished  in  Christ,  and  hence  the 

149 


I50  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

psalms  in  which  they  are  found,  are  reckoned  as  Messianic. 
It  is  to  be  observed  that  such  psalms  at  the  same  time  con- 
sist of  other  contents,  such  as  praises,  prayers,  exhortations, 
precepts,  which  the  authors  of  the  psalms  utter,  as  the  ex- 
pression of  their  own  religious  feelings  and  experience,  and 
address  more  especially  to  those  of  their  own  time  and  dis- 
pensation. 

The  other  psalms  already  considered  are  Messianic  in  a 
concrete  or  personal  sense.  Those  here  referred  to  are 
Messianic  impliedly,  or  in  virtue  of  the  necessary  connec- 
tion between  the  events  foretold  and  the  appointed  author 
of  their  accomplishment. 

They  portray  a  condition  of  things  which  was  to 
be  brought  about  only  under  the  Christian  dispen- 
sation, when  the  gospel  should  be  preached  in  all 
the  world,  and  should  everywhere  be  victorious. 
They  described  certain  great,  spiritual,  world-wide 
results,  and  imply  the  coming  and  triumph  of  the 
Messiah  as  the  divinely  appointed  means  by  which 
those  results  are  to  be  secured. 

As  has  been  said,  this  class  of  psalms  is  quite 
numerous.  The  Messianic  expectation  is  con- 
stantly flashing  out  in  the  devotional  literature  of 
God's  ancient  people,  and  their  hymns  are  full  of 
the  joy  of  a  coming  victory. 

Indeed,  comparatively  few  of  the  psalms  are  wanting  in 
some  recognition,  more  or  less  distinct,  of  the  era  when 
Jehovah  is  to  be  acknowledged  as  the  object  of  universal 
worship,  and  the  light  which  shone  forth  from  the  sanctuary 
on  Mt.  Zion,  is  to  spread  farther  and  farther  until  it  illu- 
mines the  whole  earth. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  I  5  I 

A  consummation  to  be  realized  only  through  the 
manifestation  of  the  Messiah,  who  was  to  be  the 
true  light  of  the  world.  The  predictive  character 
of  the  Old  Testament  literature  is  too  obvious  to  be 
disputed.  Even  Dc  Wette,  who  certainly  would 
not  be  tempted  to  overstate  the  matter,  says  : 

Long  before  Christ,  the  world  in  which  he  was  to  appear 
was  prepared.  The  whole  Old  Testament  is  a  great  pro- 
phecy, a  great  type  of  him  who  was  to  come,  and  who  did 
come.  Who  can  deny  that  the  holy  seers  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment saw,  in  spirit,  long  beforehand,  the  coming  of  Christ, 
and  had  presages  of  the  new  doctrine  in  prophetic  anticipa- 
tions, varying  in  clearness  ?  The  typological  comparison  of 
the  Old  Testament  with  the  New  was  no  unmeaning  amuse- 
ment. And  it  is  scarcely  a  mere  accident  that  the  evangel- 
ical history,  in  the  more  important  points,  runs  parallel 
with  the  Mosaic. 

The  psalms  which  have  been  regarded  as  Mes- 
sianic in  this  general  sense  by  rabbinical  and  Chris- 
tian commentators  alike,  are  :  46,  47,  48,  68,  89, 
93.  96,  97,  98,  102,  132,  and  others.  The  forty- 
sixth  Psalm,  which  we  are  now  to  consider,  and  the 
two  following  ones,  are  hymns  of  triumph  and  re- 
joicing. They  were  evidently  composed  after  some 
great  victory,  when  God  had  signally  interposed 
for  the  deliverance  of  his  people,  and  they  point 
forward  to  the  final  and  glorious  victory,  after  many 
a  fierce  conflict,  of  God  and  his  people,  and  truth 
and  righteousness  in  the  world. 


152  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

It  is  possible  that  these  three  psalms  were  born  of 
the  same  occasion,  and  of  the  same  great  national 
event,  though  there  is  the  same  difference  of  opinion 
as  to  what  the  particular  occasion  was  that  exists 
about  the  origin  of  many  other  psalms.  Hengsten- 
berg  and  Delitzsch  think  it  was  the  victory  of  Je- 
hoshaphat  over  the  combined  forces  of  the  Moab- 
ites,  Ammonites,  and  Edomites,  whose  invasion  of 
Judah  and  miraculous  overthrow  are  recorded  in 
2  Chron.  20.  But  Perowne  and  many  others  refer 
it  to  the  memorable  destruction  of  the  army  of  Sen- 
nacherib under  the  walls  of  Jerusalem. 

That  proud  host  had  swept  the  land.  City  after  city  had 
fallen  into  the  power  of  the  conqueror.  The  career  of  Sen- 
nacherib and  his  captains  had  been  one  uninterrupted  suc- 
cess. The  capital  itself  alone  held  out,  and  even  there  the 
enfeebled  garrison  seemed  little  likely  to  make  a  successful 
resistance.  The  swollen  river  had,  in  the  language  of  the 
prophet,  overflowed  all  its  channels,  and  risen  even  to  the 
neck.  It  was  at  this  crisis  that  deliverance  came.  When 
there  was  no  succor  to  be  expected,  when  neither  king  nor 
army  could  help  the  city,  God  helped  her.  He,  the  Lord 
of  Hosts,  was  in  the  midst  of  her,  keeping  watch  over  her 
walls  and  defending  her  towers.  His  angel  went  forth  at 
dead  of  night,  and  smote  the  host  of  the  Assyrians,  and 
when  men  awoke  in  the  morning,  there  reigned  in  that  vast 
camp  the  silence  and  the  stillness  of  death.  Such  a  deliver- 
ance must  have  filled  the  whole  nation  with  wonder  and  joy. 

It  was  some  such  deliverance,  at  that  time  or 
at  some  other,  that  inspired  the  unknown  poet  to 


THE    MESSIAH    IX    THE    PSALMS  1 53 

break  forth  in  ascriptions  of  praise  and  thanksgiving 
to  God,  clothed  in  words  of  marvelous  strength  and 
beaut}'.  It  should  be  added  that  it  is  utterly  un- 
necessary to  accept  the  suggestion  of  Wellhausen, 
and  look  for  the  occasion  and  explanation  of  the 
psalm  as  late  as  the  third  century  before  the 
Christian  era,  unless  one  is  determined  to  dispute 
its  accepted  antiquity,  and  insist  that  it  is  a  more 
modern  production.      Wellhausen  says  : 

A  complete  revolution  in  all  the  component  parts  of  a 
great  political  system,  such  as  was  occasioned  by  Alexander 
the  Great  (33  (?)  B.  c),  would  explain  this  psalm,  a  shaking 
of  the  whole  ancient  world,  leaving  only  Jerusalem  un- 
shaken, and  appearing  to  the  Jews  as  Jehovah's  preparation 
for  the  Messianic  kingdom,    .   .    this  is  to  be  presupposed. 

He  docs  not  venture  to  assert  that  the  conquests 
of  Alexander  were  the  occasion  of  the  psalm,  but 
suggests  that  they  might  explain  it — a  wholly 
gratuitous  assumption. 

Looked  at  from  merely  a  literary  point  of  view, 
the  psalm  is  a  very  remarkable  one.  "  God  is  our 
refuge  and  strength,  a  very  present  Jielp  in  trou- 
ble. Therefore  will  not  we  fear,  though  the  earth 
be  removed,  and  though  the  mountains  be  carried 
into  the  midst  of  the  sea  ;  though  the  waters 
thereof  roar  and  be  troubled,  though  the  mountains 
shake  with  the  swelling  thereof.  There  is  a  river, 
the  streams  whereof  shall  ma  he  glad  the  city  of 
God,  the  holy  place  of  the  tabernacles  of  the  Most 


154  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

High.  God  is  in  the  midst  of  her  ;  she  shall  not 
be  moved  :  God  shall  help  her,  and  that  right  early. 
The  heathen  raged,  the  kingdoms  were  moved :  he 
uttered  his  voice,  the  earth  melted.  The  Lord  of 
hosts  is  zuith  ns  ;  the  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge. 
Come,  beJiold  the  works  of  the  Lord,  what  desola- 
tions he  hath  made  in  the  earth.  He  maketh  wars 
to  cease  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  he  breaketh 
the  bozv  and  cutteth  the  spear  in  sunder  ;  lie  burn- 
etii the  chariot  in  the  fire.  Be  still,  and  know  that 
L  am  God:  I  will  be  exalted  among  the  heathen, 
L  will  be  exalted  in  the  earth.  The  Lord  of  hosts 
is  with  us  ;  the  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge." 

It  is  impossible  to  restrict  such  sublime  language 
to  any  local  occurrence,  however  important  it  may 
have  been  in  Jewish  history.  The  waters,  to  use 
the  psalmist's  figure,  overflow  the  banks  which 
would  confine  them,  and  flow  out  into  the  wider 
history  of  God's  people,  and  flow  on  until  that 
history  shall  culminate  in  their  final  victory  and 
redemption  from  all  evil,  and  deliverance  from 
every  foe.      It  is  a  profound  saying  of  Bacon  that, 

Divine  prophecies,  being  of  the  nature  of  their  author, 
with  whom  a  thousand  years  are  but  as  one  day,  are  there- 
fore not  fulfilled  punctually  at  once,  but  have  springing  and 
germinant  accomplishments. 

These  predictive  words,  so  grand  and  far-reach- 
ing, so   full  of  confidence   and   of  consolation,   of 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 55 

conflict  and  of  triumph,  of  wonder  and  of  adora- 
tion, may  be  said  to  have  had  a  hundred  partial 
fulfillments,  and  yet  not  to  be  exhausted,  not  to 
have  come  even  now  to  that  final  fulfillment  which 
the  inspired  writer  had  in  his  far-reaching  vision. 
There  were  undoubtedly  partial  fulfillments  in  the 
history  of  God's  ancient  people,  which  will  account 
for  the  lack  of  unanimity  in  determining  the  par- 
ticular reference  of  the  psalm.  There  was  a  par- 
tial fulfillment  in  the  first  Christian  centuries,  when 
Christ  saved  the  life  of  his  church,  and  multiplied 
it  amid  cruel  and  unrelenting  heathen  persecutions, 
— saved  it  from  threatened  extinction,  and  multi- 
plied it  until  it  was  exalted  to  the  throne  of  the 
Caesars,  and  spread  far  and  wide  through  the  known 
world.  Often  in  those  early  years  the  hunted  and 
slaughtered  disciples  must  have  cried  out,  "  God  is 
our  refuge  and  strength,  a  very  present  help  in 
trouble.  Therefore  will  not  we  fear,  though  the 
earth  be  removed,  and  though  the  mountains  be 
carried  into  the  midst  of  the  sea."  There  was  a 
partial  fulfillment  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, when  a  wave  of  ruthless  and  repulsive  bar- 
barism swept  down  upon  the  Church  of  Christ,  and 
threatened  the  very  existence  of  Christian  civ- 
ilization. Those  were  the  days  of  Vandals,  and 
Huns,  and  Attila,  "the  scourge  of  God."  Then 
must  the  followers  of  Christ  have  given  expression 
to  their  faith  in  the  memorable  words,  "  God  is  in 


156  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

the  midst  of  her  ;  she  shall  not  be  moved  :  God 
shall  help  her,  and  that  right  early.  The  heathen 
raged,  the  kingdoms  were  moved  :  he  uttered  his 
voice,  the  earth  melted." 

There  was  a  partial  fulfillment  two  centuries 
later,  when  the  rapidly  growing  Mohammedan 
power  seemed  to  be  encircling  Christendom,  and 
about  to  annihilate  the  Christian  faith,  until  upon 
the  plains  between  Tours  and  Poictiers,  Charles 
Martel,  by  the  favor  of  the  Almighty,  defeated  the 
fanatical  hosts  and  saved  Europe  from  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  disciples  of  the  false  prophet  of 
Arabia.  Then  the  followers  of  the  true  religion 
must  have  exclaimed,  "  Come,  behold  the  works  of 
the  Lord  ;  what  desolations  he  hath  made  in  the 
earth.  He  maketh  wars  to  cease  unto  the  end  of 
the  earth  ;  he  breaketh  the  bow,  and  cutteth  the 
spear  in  sunder,  he  burnetii  the  chariot  in  the  fire." 

Luther's  famous  hymn,  which  afterward  became 
the  national  hymn  of  the  emancipated  German 
people, 

Ein  fcste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott, 

was  forged  in  the  hot  fires,  the  burning  controver- 
sies of  the  Reformation  period,  and  was  based 
upon  this  psalm,  in  recognition  of  its  partial  fulfill- 
ment. There  was  a  partial  fulfillment  when  Eng- 
land across  the  channel  was  saved  to  Protestantism 
by  the  destruction  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  when 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 57 

the  tempest  of  God  smote  that  formidable  fleet, 
and  scattered  it,  and  wiped  it  from  the  face  of  the 
deep.  In  the  presence  of  such  a  manifest  divine 
interposition,  Protestant  England  must  have  heard 
a  voice  out  of  the  clouds  saying,  "Be  still  and 
know  that  I  am  God  ;  I  will  be  exalted  among  the 
heathen  :  I  will  be  exalted  in  the  earth,"  and  must 
have  devoutly  and  believingly  answered  back, 
"The  Lord  of  hosts  is  with  us  ;  the  God  of  Jacob 
is  our  refuge." 

All  these  were  but  partial  fulfillments.  The 
psalm  still  points  to  the  future.  Its  language  still 
hangs  loosely,  like  a  garment  too  large,  upon  any 
and  all  events  upon  which  it  has  been  put.  It 
waits  to  be  filled  out  by  the  complete  conquest  of 
all  enemies  of  God  and  his  people,  the  universal 
enthronement  of  the  Messiah  King,  and  the  uni- 
versal reign  of  peace  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth. 

The  psalm  is  divided  into  three  strophes,  each 
one  of  which  ends  with  a  Selah,  and  the  last  two 
close  with  a  very  significant  refrain. 

In  the  first  strophe  (vcr.  1-3),  God  is  declared 
to  be  the  sure  defense  of  his  people  in  all  perils 
and  at  all  times.  No  matter  how  fearful  may  be 
the  commotions  among  men  and  nations,  repre- 
sented by  the  moving  earth,  which  ordinarily  we 
call  terra  firma,  and  the  mountains  tumbling  and 
sinking  beneath   the  sea,  the    roaring  and    swelling 


I58  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

waves,  at  whose  repeated  blows  the  foundations  of 
the  hills  are  made  to  tremble — no  matter  how 
violent  may  be  the  assaults  of  evil,  all  forms  of 
wickedness  and  misrule  and  anarchy,  not  only 
against  personal  character  and  peace,  but  against 
the  basis  of  human  government  and  social  order 
and  national  integrity,  and  against  the  foundations 
of  God's  kingdom  in  the  earth — God  reigns,  and 
we  need  not  fear.  He  is  mightier  than  the  noise 
of  many  waters.  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength, 
a  very  present  help  in  trouble.  The  same  thought 
was  expressed  by  Christ  in  New  Testament  lan- 
guage :  "On  this  rock  will  I  build  my  church,  and 
the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 

The  second  strophe  (ver.  4-7)  represents  the 
peace  of  Zion  as  secured  by  the  indwelling  pres- 
ence of  God,  and  the  destruction  of  all  her  enemies. 
"  There  is  a  river,  the  streams  whereof  shall  make 
glad  the  city  of  God,  the  holy  place  of  the  taber- 
nacles of  the  Most  High.  God  is  in  the  midst  of 
her ;  she  shall  not  be  moved :  God  shall  help  her, 
and  that  right  early.'  Dr.  Watts  in  his  inspiring 
hymn,  which  is  based  upon  this  psalm,  beginning, 
"God  is  the  refuge  of  his  saints,"  has  two  stanzas 
in  which  he  interprets  the  fourth  verse  of  the  psalm: 

There  is  a  stream,  whose  gentle  flow 

Supplies  the  city  of  our  God  ; 
Life,  love,  and  joy  still  gliding  through, 

And  watering  our  divine  abode. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 59 

That  sacred  stream,  thine  holy  word, 
Our  grief  allays,  our  fear  controls  ; 

Sweet  peace  thy  promises  afford, 

And  give  new  strength  to  fainting  souls. 

The  sentiment  of  the  hymn  is  true.  These 
stanzas  are  a  beautiful  tribute  to  the  power  of 
God's  word  and  its  gracious  promises,  to  sustain 
souls  that  are  distressed  and  timid  and  faint.  But 
that  is  not  the  thought  of  the  psalm.  It  is  not  the 
word  of  God,  but  it  is  the  presence  of  God  himself, 
that  is  the  source  of  the  believer's  and  the  church's 
confidence  and  peace.  That  river,  with  its  ever- 
flowing  and  gladdening  waters,  represents  God,  the 
infinite  and  omnipresent  Spirit,  the  abiding  Pro- 
tector of  his  people.  "God  is  in  the  midst  of  her, 
she  shall  not  be  moved  :  God  shall  help  her  when 
the  morning  dawns,"  which  is  a  better  translation. 
God  shall  help  her  "  in  the  morning  of  redemption 
and  triumph  as  opposed  to  the  night  of  disaster 
and  sorrow."  Not  in  her  own  strength,  and  not  in 
alliance  with  the  world  and  its  powers  and  its 
forces,  but  in  the  strength  of  the  Almighty  is  the 
peace,  the  prosperity  of  the  church.  Whenever 
the  Church  has  allied  herself  to  the  State,  and 
entered  into  unholy  wedlock  with  the  civil  power, 
hoping  thereby  to  gain  prestige  and  influence,  she 
lias  been  secularized  and  weakened,  and  the  prog- 
eny has  been  only  evil  and  disaster.  Her  life,  her 
members,  her   resources   are  all  and  only  spiritual. 


l60  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

She  must  depend  evermore  upon  the  residence  and 
aid  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  figure  of  the  un- 
failing stream  was  here  employed,  says  Calvin, 

That  the  faithful  might  learn  that,  without  any  aid  from 
the  world,  the  grace  of  God  alone  was  sufficient  for  them. 
.  .  Therefore,  though  the  help  of  God  may  but  trickle  to  us 
in  slender  streams,  we  should  enjoy  a  deeper  tranquillity 
than  if  all  the  power  of  the  world  were  heaped  up  all  at 
once  for  our  help. 

The  third  strophe  (ver.  8-n)  sets  before  us  God 
as  presiding  over  all  human  conflicts,  the  tribal  and 
national  wars,  that  have  decimated  peoples,  have 
incarnadined  oceans  and  drenched  continents  with 
blood,  and  have  filled,  and  may  yet  fill,  villages  and 
cities  with  sorrow  and  tears,  and  his  purpose  to  be 
exalted  to  the  throne  of  undisputed  and  peaceful 
and  universal  supremacy  on  the  earth.  This  strophe 
then  closes  like  the  preceding  one  with  the  refrain, 
"The  Lord  of  hosts  is  with  us  ;  the  God  of  Jacob 
is  our  refuge.'' 

The  psalm  contains,  it  will  be  noticed,  three  dis- 
tinct Messianic  thoughts,  which  give  to  it  its  pro- 
phetic character  and  place  in  the  Christological 
literature  of  the  Old  Testament. 

First,  there  is  the  universal  recognition  of  God 
as  the  one,  true,  and  only  supreme  Being  distinctly 
predicted,  and  to  be  brought  about,  as  we  know, 
only  by  the  universal  prevalence  of  Christianity. 
The  God  of  the  Jews,  whose  sovereignty,  spiritual 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  l6l 

nature,  infinite  wisdom  and  power,  righteous  and 
merciful  character,  were  revealed  by  the  prophets 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  more  fully  revealed  by 
the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament,  is  to  be  ac- 
knowledged by  the  world  as  the  God  of  the  whole 
world  :  "  Be  still,  and  know  that  I  am  God :  I  will 
be  exalted  among-  the  heathen,  I  will  be  exalted  in 
the  earthy  This  is  the  purpose  of  the  Almighty, 
a  purpose  which  was  to  be  accomplished  as  Juda- 
ism was  superseded  by  Christianity,  and  Christian- 
ity should  be  proclaimed  among  all  nations  and  ac- 
cepted by  them.  All  that  was  best  and  permanent 
in  Judaism  passed  over  into  Christianity.  Christ 
"came  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill."  Judaism  is  a 
decadent  and  powerless  religion.  Having  rejected 
the  fuller  revelation  of  God,  God  rejected  it  and 
gave  it  over  to  judicial  blindness.  It  has  become 
more  and  more  unspiritual,  rationalistic,  and  mate- 
rialistic. It  is  no  longer  reckoned  as  an  aggres- 
sive moral  and  spiritual  force  in  the  world. 

But  its  sublime  monotheistic  faith  is  enshrined  in 
the  heart  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  the  fight  now 
is  not  between  Judaism  and  idolatry  and  heathenism, 
as  it  once  was,  but  between  Christianity  and  all 
other  religions  which,  whatever  small  elements  of 
truth  they  may  contain,  like  grains  of  wheat  in 
mountains  of  chaff,  have  no  conception  of  God  as 
a  supreme,  holy,  and  merciful  Spirit,  and  are  there- 
fore perversions  of  religion,  religious  in  name,  but 

L 


1 62  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

false  in  nature  and  harmful  and  deadening  in  their 
influence.  They  are  not  educating  man  toward  a 
true,  spiritual,  and  saving  faith,  but  are  tremendous 
obstacles  to  the  progress  of  the  true  faith,  as  all 
Christian  missionaries  know  to  their  sorrow.  All 
study  of  these  religions  on  their  fields  reveals  their 
utter  inability  to  reform  and  elevate  social  condi- 
tions or  to  regenerate  and  save  the  souls  of  men. 
They  know  not  our  God  and  possess  not  his  truth. 
The  fundamental  purpose  of  all  revealed  religion  is 
to  make  God  known  and  secure  his  intelligent,  de- 
vout, and  loving  acknowledgment.  God  says  to  all 
heathen  religions  and  heathen  teachers  and  philoso- 
phers, "  Be  still,  and  know  that  I  am  God  :  I  will 
be  exalted  among  the  heathen,  I  will  be  exalted  in 
the  earth."  Christ  says,  "  I  am  the  way,  the  truth, 
and  the  life.  No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father,  but 
by  me."  "Ye  worship,  ye  know  not  what.  .  .  But 
the  hour  cometh,  and  now  is,  when  the  true  wor- 
shipers shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and  in 
truth."  The  universal  recognition  of  God  can  only 
be  brought  about  through  the  universal  proclama- 
tion of  Christ  and  triumph  of  Christianity. 

A  second  Messianic  thought  contained  in  the 
psalm  is  the  universal  reign  of  peace  on  earth  : 
"  He  make tli  wars  to  cease  unto  the  end  of  the  earth  ; 
he  brcaketJi  the  bozv,  and  cutteth  the  spear  in  sunder  ; 
he  burnetii  the  chariot  in  tlic  fire."  Surely  no  one 
can  say  that  this  blessed  predictive  utterance  has 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 63 

been  completely  fulfilled.  We  stand  at  the  thresh- 
old of  the  twentieth  century,  yet  our  ears  are  dis- 
tressed with  the  sound  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars 
coming  from  afar  and  near  at  hand.  The  air  seems 
to  be  ringing  with  the  cry,  "  To  arms."  On  every 
side  and  constantly  arc  busy  preparations  for  threat- 
ened conflict,  immense  standing  armies,  the  con- 
struction and  purchase  of  war  ships,  the  invention 
and  manufacture  of  destructive  explosives,  the 
better  defense  of  seaport  towns,  the  careful  meas- 
urement of  available  forces,  everything  that  denotes 
that  the  cruel  dogs  of  war  may  at  any  moment  be 
let  loose.  The  whole  world  seems  to  be  waiting 
in  breathless  suspense.  Almost  every  nation  in 
Europe  is  standing  at  its  guns,  each  eager  for  the 
acquisition  of  territorial  advantage  or  suspicious  of 
others'  aggressions  and  ready  to  resort  to  arms  at 
the  slightest  cause. 

Our  own  nation,  in  which  perhaps  the  love  of 
peace  is  stronger  and  more  deeply  rooted  than  in 
any  other,  with  the  painful  memories  of  the  awful 
scenes  of  the  sixties  still  fresh  in  mind,  and  still  feel- 
ing the  remains  of  the  enormous  burden  of  sorrow 
and  of  waste  then  endured,  was  plunged  into  a 
bloody  conflict  with  Spain.  No  matter  how  hu- 
mane the  motive  which  actuated  our  government, 
and  how  free  from  all  ambition  for  territorial  ex- 
pansion and  the  spirit  of  imperialism,  no  matter 
how  justifiable   and   righteous   the    war  may  have 


164  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

seemed  in  view  of  the  degraded  and  suffering  con- 
dition of  millions  of  our  fellow-beings  under  the 
oppressive  rule  of  Spain,  it  was  still  war,  with  its 
suffering  and  death  on  the  battlefield  and  in  the 
hospital.  War  for  any  cause  is  a  horrible  thing, 
to  be  resorted  to  only  to  secure  freedom  from  un- 
righteous and  grinding  oppression  or  for  national 
self-preservation.  The  united  prayer  of  Christen- 
dom ascends  to-day,  as  never  before,  May  God  save 
us  from  the  waste,  the  destruction,  the  misery,  the 
inhumanity  of  cruel  war,  which  seems  but  a  relic 
of  a  barbarous  age  and  utterly  opposed  to  the 
humane  and  enlightened  sentiment  of  this  late 
period  of  the  Christian  era.  May  God  convert 
and  subdue  all  savage  tribes  and  make  nominally 
Christian  nations  Christian  indeed,  lovers  of  peace 
and  patient  under  supposed  or  real  provocation, 
and  help  them  to  feel  that  the  highest  patriotism, 
like  the  highest  manhood,  may  consist  in  self-mas- 
tery, not  in  a  brutal  trial  of  physical  strength,  but 
in  a  calm  and  dignified  assertion  of  the  right,  and 
a  willingness  to  submit  the  decision  to  peaceful 
arbitration  and  to  the  judgment  of  coming  genera- 
tions and  of  Almighty  God. 

There  is  no  doubt  what  that  judgment  will  be, 
for  it  is  the  better  hope  of  mankind  that  wars  shall 
come  to  an  end  ;  aye,  more,  it  is  the  purpose  of  the 
Almighty  that  they  shall  come  to  an  end.  "He 
maketh  wars  to  cease  unto  the  end  of  the  earth." 


Till;    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  165 

The  fulfillment  of  the  prophecy  still  tarries,  but  it 
is  certain  to  come,  for  it  is  a  vital  part  of  that  Mes- 
sianic glory  which  is  in  due  time  to  cover  the  earth. 
"They  shall  beat  their  swords  into  ploughshares 
and  their  spears  into  pruning  hooks;  nation  shall 
not  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they 
learn  war  any  more."  The  Messiah  is  the  "  Prince 
of  Peace."  When  he  was  born  into  the  world  the 
angels  sang  a  new  anthem  of  "  Peace  on  earth, 
good  will  to  men."  The  ancient  prophecy  was  re- 
announced.  God's  purpose  leaped  forward  toward 
its  fulfillment.  The  new  doctrine  should  strike  at 
the  throat  of  all  national  hostility  as  well  as  per- 
sonal bitterness.  The  new  kingdom  should  be 
founded  in  the  brotherhood  of  nations  as  well  as 
the  brotherhood  of  man.  It  should  be  a  kingdom 
of  righteousness  and  joy  and  world-wide  peace. 
Human  history  has  too  often,  even  in  this  Christian 
era,  been  written  in  blood.  But  a  new  chapter  is 
coming,  as  the  Messiah  shall  be  enthroned  in  the 
hearts  of  men  and  in  the  councils  of  nations  : 

Down  the  dark  future,  through  long  generations, 
The  sounds  of  war  grow  fainter,  and  then  cease  ; 

And  like  a  bell  with  solemn,  sweet  vibrations, 

I  hear  once  more  the  voice  of  Christ  say,  "  Peace!" 

Peace  !  and  no  longer,  from  its  brazen  portals 
The  blast  of  war's  great  organ  shakes  the  skies  ! 

But  beautiful  as  songs  of  the  immortals, 
The  holy  melodies  of  love  arise. 


1 66  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

The  proposition  for  a  peace  conference  by  the 
representatives  of  the  great  nations,  issued  by  the 
Czar  of  Russia,  cannot  but  be  regarded  as  the 
most  remarkable  and  hopeful  event  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  mo- 
tive which  led  to  it,  and  the  results  to  which  it  will 
lead,  the  fact  that  it  was  submitted  to  the  foreign 
diplomatists  at  St.  Petersburg  will  ever  mark  August 
24,  1 898,  as  a  memorable  day  in  human  history  and 
as  a  bright  omen  of  the  approach  of  that  era  in  the 
world's  progress  when  Christian  ideals  of  national 
life  and  greatness  will  be  universally  recognized  and 
honored.  The  opening  words  of  the  imperial  pro- 
position are  profoundly  significant : 

The  maintenance  of  general  peace  and  the  possible  re- 
duction of  the  excessive  armaments  which  weigh  upon  all 
nations,  present  themselves  in  existing  conditions  to  the 
whole  world  as  an  ideal  toward  which  the  endeavors  of  all 
governments  should  be  directed. 

The  concluding  words  are  equally  significant : 

This  conference  will  be,  by  the  help  of  God,  a  happy 
presage  for  the  century  which  is  about  to  open.  It  would 
converge  into  one  powerful  focus  the  efforts  of  all  States 
sincerely  seeking  to  make  the  great  conception  of  universal 
peace  triumph  over  the  elements  of  trouble  and  discord, 
and  it  would,  at  the  same  time,  cement  their  agreement  by 
a  corporate  consecration  of  the  principles  of  equity  and 
right,  whereon  rest  the  security  of  States  and  the  welfare 
of  peoples. 


THE    MESSIAH     I.N"    THE    PSALMS  167 

Christian  statesmanship  has  found  no  truer  ex- 
pression since  Christ  taught  and  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  his  kingdom  on  the  hills  of  Galilee.  Such 
an  expression  from  such  a  source  is  a  most  encour- 
aging augury  of  the  complete  triumph  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

The  third  Messianic  thought  contained  in  the 
psalm  is  the  presence  and  immanence  of  God 
among  men.  As  we  have  already  seen,  the  peace 
of  Zion  was  made  certain,  because  "  God  is  in 
the  midst  of  her."  The  suggestive  refrain  at  the 
end  of  the  second  and  third  strophe  is,  "  The  Lord 
of  hosts  is  witJi  us."  The  Hebrew  scholar  will 
here  quickly  detect  what  seems  to  be  the  prophetic 
intimation  of  the  language,  which  occurs  also  in 
Isa.  8  :  10.  It  is  "  Immanu  "  and  "  Immanuel." 
In  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  in  the  account  of  the 
birth  of  Christ,  the  Messiah,  we  read,  "And  shall 
bring  forth  a  son,  and  they  shall  call  his  name  Im- 
manuel, which  being  interpreted  is,  God  with  us." 
The  word  is  the  same.  Perowne  says,  "The  bur- 
den alike  of  prophecy  and  psalm  is  Immanuel, 
God  with  us."  The  great  message  of  the  New 
Testament  to  the  whole  human  race  is  Immanuel, 
God  with  us. 

God  was  with  his  ancient  people  by  his  Spirit, 
and  spoke  to  them  often  and  unmistakably  by  the 
mouth  of  his  prophets.  He  was  there  in  the  burn- 
ing bush,  in  the  shekinah  of  the  tabernacle,  and  in 


1 68  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire,  as  well  as  in  the 
Angel  of  Jehovah,  whom  many  believe  to  be  the 
pre-existent  Christ.  But  he  came  into  new  and 
closer  and  more  appreciable  relations  to  humanity 
when  he  was  incarnated  in  Jesus  Christ.  He  was 
no  longer  a  God  afar  off,  the  invisible  Spirit,  too 
often  unrecognized  and  unknown.  He  became 
visible,  tangible,  one  of  us,  clothed  with  our  hu- 
manity, living  a  real  life,  entering  into  our  sorrows 
and  our  joys,  our  brother,  a  man  whose  biography 
could  be  written  and  published  to  the  world,  and 
whose  death  could  make  atonement  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  human  family.  "The  word  became 
flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us."  Christ  was  "God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,"  and  was  so  true  and  ade- 
quate a  manifestation  of  God  that  he  could  say, 
with  no  thought  of  contradiction,  "He  that  hath 
seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." 

And  so  it  is  that  the  thought  of  the  psalmist, 
which  was  a  very  real  and  very  comforting  thought 
to  him,  and  to  those  who  with  him  truly  appre- 
hended it,  is  sensibly  fulfilled  to  us  in  the  person  of 
our  divine  Immanuel.  God  has  come  into  human 
life  and  into  human  history.  We  can  see  his  foot- 
steps, we  can  trace  his  influence,  we  can  look  upon 
his  mighty  deeds,  we  can  hear  his  words  of  match- 
less wisdom,  we  can  feel  his  presence  and  his  sym- 
pathy. 

We  repeat  the  old  psalm  with  a  new  and  richer 


THE    MESSIAH     IX    THE    PSALMS  169 

and  fuller  meaning  since  Christ  was  born.  It  sig- 
nified much  to  him  who  wrote  it;  it  signifies  vastly 
more  to  us.  "  God  is  with  us  "  in  the  progress  of  hu- 
manity and  its  divine  unfolding  purpose,  for  he  has 
identified  himself  with  it.  "God  is  with  us"  in  the 
history  of  nations,  for  he  became  a  Jew,  and  wept  over 
Jerusalem.  "God  is  with  us"  in  the  life  of  the  church, 
for  he  laid  its  foundations  in  his  blood,  he  became 
himself  its  corner-stone  and  the  bishop  of  souls. 
"God  is  with  us"  in  our  personal  experiences,  for 
he  is  our  brother  and  Saviour,  our  refuge  under  the 
consciousness  of  sin,  our  strength  in  the  midst  of 
all  temptations,  a  very  present  help  in  trouble. 
Therefore  will  not  we  fear,  whatever  may  be  our 
present  lot,  and  whatever  may  befall  us.  "God  is 
with  us"  under  our  present  burden,  and  in  the  un- 
known events  of  the  future.  "  God  is  with  us  "  in 
life  and  in  death,  in  time  and  eternity.  "Yea, 
though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  I  will  fear  no  evil :  for  thou  art  with  me  ;  thy 
rod  and  thy  staff  they  comfort  me."  "Thou  shalt 
guide  me  with  thy  counsel,  and  afterward  receive 
me  to  glory." 


CHAPTER  VIII 
SPECIAL  MESSIANIC  QUOTATIONS 


VIII 

In  addition  to  the  psalms  which  we 
Special        have  examined   and  found   to    refer 

dotations     to  thc  Messiah'  SOmC  °f  them  COn" 
taining    distinct   statements    of    his 

character,  mission,  and  dominion,  and  others  fore- 
telling a  condition  of  things,  social,  moral,  and  re- 
ligious, to  be  brought  about  only  by  the  universal 
proclamation  and  acceptance  of  the  gospel,  there 
are  numerous  single  verses  scattered  throughout 
the  book  of  Psalms,  and  quoted  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  specially  applicable  to  Christ,  or  intention- 
ally prophetic  of  him.  Our  study  of  the  Mes- 
sianic psalms  would  not  be  complete  without  some 
consideration  of  these  scattered  foregleams  of  the 
coming  Messiah.  They  have  reference  to  both 
aspects  of  Christ's  personal  character  and  work,  as 
conqueror  and  sufferer,  as  supreme  King  with 
world-wide  dominion,  and  as  divinely  appointed 
Priest  offering  atonement  for  the  sins  of  mankind. 
These  separate  verses,  like  most  of  the  passages 
which  we  have  reviewed,  and  indeed  like  the  ma- 
jority of  the  passages  in  the  Old  Testament  quoted 
by  writers  of  the  New  Testament  as  referable  to 
Christ,  had  a  local  and  contemporaneous  applica- 

i73 


174  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

tion,  a  primary  meaning,  a  partial  fulfillment  in 
some  person  or  event  near  at  hand,  though  it  is  so 
difficult  to  determine  what  the  local  application  or 
fulfillment  was,  that  often  there  is  no  unanimity  of 
judgment  among  biblical  scholars.  Dr.  Franklin 
Johnson,  in  his  able  volume  entitled  "  The  Quota- 
tions of  the  New  Testament  from  the  Old,"  says  : 

The  writers  of  the  New  Testament  often  treat  as  relating 
to  the  Messiah  and  his  kingdom  passages  written  with  ref- 
erence to  persons  who  lived,  and  events  which  happened, 
centuries  before  the  Christian  era.  There  are  direct  Mes- 
sianic predictions  in  the  Old  Testament,  like  Isa.  8  :  23  ; 
9  :  1,  2  ;  Zech.  9  :  9-17.  The  predictions  of  this  kind, 
however,  are  relatively  few  in  number,  and  usually  the  pas- 
sages quoted  in  the  New  Testament  as  pointing  forward  to 
Christ  were  occasioned  by  some  person  or  event  contem- 
porary with  the  prophet. 

This  double  reference  has  been  accepted  by  the 
great  body  of  devout  scholars,  and  more  than  that, 
it  has  been  shown  to  have  its  illustrations  in  all  lit- 
erature, ancient  and  modern.  Christ  and  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  have  given  to  it 
their  emphatic  and  unquestionable  endorsement. 

The  importance  of  a  recognition  of  the  large 
place  which  the  Messianic  element  occupies  in  the 
Old  Testament,  has  been  well  set  forth  by  Rev. 
Stanley  Leathes,  in  the  "Boyle  Lectures"  for  1868  : 

It  does  not  admit  of  any  reasonable  doubt  that  our  Lord 
himself  believed  and  taught  that  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 75 

tures  spoke  of  a  Messiah.  This  position  is  involved  in  the 
whole  tissue  of  the  New  Testament.  If,  therefore,  it  was  a 
false  one,  then  the  conclusion  is  inevitable  that  the  evangel- 
ists and  apostles,  nay,  even  that  Christ  himself,  built  a  large 
portion  of  their  teaching  upon  a  false  foundation.  Their 
premises  were  unsound.  The  argument  that  Jesus  was  the 
Christ  of  the  Old  Testament  was  worth  nothing,  if,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  Old  Testament  did  not  speak  of  any 
Christ.  To  assert  this,  is  practically  to  sweep  away  more 
than  half  the  basis  on  which  the  apostles  rest  the  fabric  of 
their  doctrine. 

Similar  language  has  been  used  by  Dr.  E.  P. 
Barrows,  showing  that  the  large  Messianic  element 
in  the  Old  Testament  has  entered  largely  and 
vitally  into  the  organic  structure  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment : 

That  in  Christ  were  fulfilled  the  prophecies  of  the  Old 
Testament,  appears  in  every  variety  of  form  in  the  Gospel 
narratives.  It  constituted,  so  to  speak,  the  warp  into  which 
the  Saviour  wove  his  web  of  daily  instruction.  Now,  if  a 
single  thread,  unlike  all  the  rest  in  substance  and  color, 
had  found  its  way  into  this  warp,  we  might,  perhaps,  re- 
gard it  as  foreign  and  accidental  ;  but  to  dissever  from  our 
Lord's  words  all  his  references  to  the  prophecies  concerning 
himself  in  the  Old  Testament,  would  be  to  take  out  of  the 
web  all  the  threads  of  the  warp,  and  then  the  web  itself 
would  be  gone. 

It  may  be  said  in  general  about  the  quotations 
in  the  New  Testament,  that  they  follow  the  same 
laws  which  prevail  in  other  literatures.  They  are 
made    largely   from    the   Septuagint  version,    with 


176  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

which  the  writers  were  most  familiar.  They  are 
sometimes  fragmentary  and  sometimes  composite, 
exactly  like  the  quotations  from  the  Bible  and  other 
books  which  speakers  and  literary  men  are  making 
to-day.  They  are  sometimes  quotations  from  mem- 
ory, and  sometimes  quotations  of  the  substance 
of  the  passage,  rather  than  the  exact  language, 
as  is  often  the  case  in  modern  times,  and  was 
necessarily  the  case  when  copies  of  the  Scriptures 
were  not  numerous,  and  frequently  were  not  near 
at  hand. 

It  has  often  been  remarked,  how  wonderfully  the 
inspired  writers  have  been  preserved  from  falling 
into  error  in  their  frequent  use  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  Spirit  of 
truth,  whom  Christ  promised  to  them,  was  present 
with  them  to  aid  them  in  their  composition,  and  to 
"lead  them  into  all  the  truth."  A  candid  examin- 
ation of  the  New  Testament  quotations  will  show 
them  to  be  remarkably  pure  and  true  to  the  origi- 
nal thought,  even  when  the  language  has  not  been 
perfectly  repeated.  They  constitute  a  great  body, 
and  are  employed  alike  for  argument  and  illustra- 
tion. Prof.  C.  H.  Toy  mentions  one  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  quotations  from  the  book  of  Psalms 
alone,  making  almost  one  for  each  psalm.  Dr. 
Howard  Osgood  mentions  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
nine  passages  which  are  quoted  or  referred  to.  It 
is  impossible  to  find  such  a  body  of  quotations  in 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  I  77 

any  volume  of  addresses  or  sermons,  in  which  a 
like  accuracy  has  been  preserved.  Indeed,  it  is  a 
canon  of  rhetoric,  and  an  oft-repeated  note  of  warn- 
ing among  literary  men — "Verify  your  quotations." 
Such  uniform  accuracy  on  the  part  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament writers,  together  with  Christ's  promise  of 
aid  to  them  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  could  not 
have  been  an  unmeaning  promise  to  those  who 
were  called  to  be  the  expounders  of  divine  and  sav- 
ing truth  to  the  world,  prepares  us  to  accept  con- 
fidently their  interpretation  of  Old  Testament  lan- 
guage as  applicable  to  Christ,  the  Messiah,  even 
though  it  had  a  local  reference  and  application. 

Dr.  Franklin  Johnson,  in  his  volume,  devotes  its 
longest  chapter,  extending  through  one  hundred 
and  fifty  pages,  to  the  interesting  topic,  "  Double 
Reference."  He  rightly  objects  to  the  term  "dou- 
ble sense,"  and  insists  upon  the  term  "double 
reference,"  as  growing  out  of  the  universally  ac- 
knowledged typical  relation  of  the  Old  Testament 
to  the  New.      He  quotes  Alford  as  saying  : 

No  word  prompted  by  the  Holy  Ghost  had  reference  to 
the  utterer  only.  All  Israel  was  a  type  ;  all  spiritual  Israel 
set  forth  "the  second  man,"  "  the  quickening  Spirit "  ;  all 
the  groanings  of  God's  suffering  people  prefigured  and 
found  their  fullest  meaning  in  his  groans  who  was  the  chief 
in  suffering.  The  maxim  cannot  be  too  firmly  held  or  too 
widely  applied,  that  all  the  Old  Testament  utterances  of  the 
Spirit  anticipate  Christ,  just  as  all  his  New  Testament  utter- 
ances set  forth  and  expound  Christ  :  that  Christ   is  evcry- 

M 


I78  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

where  involved  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  he  is  everywhere 
evolved  in  the  New  Testament. 

To  miss  this  intimate  relation  and  connection  be- 
tween the  two  Testaments,  is  to  miss  the  great 
truth  that  we  have  in  the  Bible  the  progressive 
revelation  of  God  to  the  world,  a  revelation  in- 
spired and  guided  by  one  Spirit,  and  that  Spirit 
the  Spirit  of  Him  who  was  its  sublime  purpose  and 
end,  and  whose  grace  and  salvation  were  to  be 
made  known  by  it  to  lost  men.  This  is  the  thought 
that  finds  expression  in  those  very  remarkable 
words  of  the  Apostle  Peter:  "Of  which  salvation 
the  prophets  have  inquired  and  searched  diligently, 
who  prophesied  of  the  grace  that  should  come  unto 
you  ;  searching  what,  or  what  manner  of  time  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them  did  signify,  when 
it  testified  beforehand  the  sufferings  of  Christ  and 
the  glory  that  should  follow."  It  was  one  inspiring 
Spirit,  one  controlling  personality,  one  divine  re- 
vealer  in  it  all.  The  Spirit  of  the  Christ  of  the  New 
Testament  is  declared  to  have  been  in  the  prophets 
who  spoke  in  the  Old  Testament,  suggesting,  fore- 
shadowing, predicting,  "testifying  beforehand,"  by 
type  and  symbol,  event  and  utterance,  what  was  to 
be  explained,  unfolded,  fulfilled  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. From  this  fact  has  arisen  that  accepted 
axiom  of  all  Christendom,  "  /;/  vetcrc  novum  latct, 
in  novo  veins  patet."  And  it  is  this  unquestion- 
able fact  that  gives  to  so  much  of  the  ritual   and 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 79 

history,  biography  and  song  of  God's  ancient  peo- 
ple a  future  as  well  as  a  contemporary  reference. 
Professor  Briggs,  while  denying  the  "  double  sense" 
theory,  admits  a  "double  reference"  view  in  these 
words  : 

But  inasmuch  as  the  prediction  advances  from  the  tem- 
poral redemption  of  its  circumstances  to  the  eternal  re- 
demption of  the  Messiah,  and  it  is  a  part  of  a  series  of  pre- 
dictions in  which  the  experience  of  redemption  is  advanc- 
ing, it  cannot  be  otherwise  than  that  some  of  the  elements 
of  the  predicted  redemption  should  be  realized  in  historical 
experience  ere  the  essential  elements  of  the  Messianic  re- 
demption are  attained. 

Illustrations  of  this  double  reference "  have 
been  adduced  by  Doctor  Johnson  from  all  literatures, 
ancient  and  modern,  from  ^Eschylus,  Homer,  Vir- 
gil, Dante,  Goethe,  Schiller,  La  Fontaine,  Moliere, 
Shakespeare,  Milton,  Tennyson,  Longfellow,  and 
many  others.  Indeed,  he  says  that  "a  literature 
would  hardly  be  worthy  of  the  name,  that  did  not 
often  present  to  the  reader  sudden  ascensions  from 
the  low  to  the  lofty,  from  the  actual  to  the  ideal, 
from  the  obvious  and  commonplace  to  the  region 
of  all  dreams  and  imaginations  and  hopes."  Such 
double  reference,  therefore,  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures 
is  in  harmony  with  the  usage  of  all  best  literature, 
as  well  as  inevitable  from  the  professedly  anticipa- 
tory and  typical  nature  of  the  religion  and  history 
of  the  children  of  Israel. 


l80  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

What  had  been  said  seemed  necessary  in  order 
to  meet  any  possible  objection  to  the  Messianic  in- 
terpretation of  certain  passages  in  the  Psalms  by 
the  New  Testament  writers. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  Ps.  8  :  5,  6,  which  reads  : 
"  For  thou  hast  made  him  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels,  and  hast  crowned  him  with  glory  and  honour. 
Thou  madest  him  to  have  dominion  over  the  works 
of  thy  hands  ;  thou  hast  put  all  things  under  his 
feet."  The  Hebrew  word  translated  "angels" 
probably  means  God,  and  the  passage  undoubtedly 
refers  to  the  statement  in  the  first  chapter  of  Gen- 
esis, that  man  was  created  in  the  image  of  God. 
It  is  a  recognition  of  the  divine  origin  of  man,  of 
his  moral  dignity  and  his  supremacy  in  all  the  realm 
of  the  animal  kingdom.  The  statement  sets  forth 
the  primal  glory  of  God's  highest  creature,  man, 
and  not  his  present  fallen  condition  in  sin.  De- 
litzsch  speaks  of  it  as  "  a  lyric  echo  of  the  Mosaic 
account  of  the  creation."  It  contains  also  the  pur- 
pose of  God  in  man's  creation  and  the  promise  of 
a  supremacy  that  is  to  be  complete.  This  is  the 
opinion  of  able  commentators,  and  this  is  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews,1 who  quotes  from  the  Septuagint  version  in- 
stead of  the  Hebrew,  saying  "  angels  "  instead  of 
"God,"  if  that  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  Hebrew 


6-9. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  151 

word.  He  is  speaking  of  Christ  as  the  typical  man, 
in  whom  the  destiny  of  humanity  was  to  be  realized. 
It  is  an  acknowledgment  of  his  humiliation,  and  at 
the  same  time  of  his  glory.  The  language  in  his 
view  pointed  backward  to  the  creation  of  Adam, 
and  forward  to  the  redemption  of  Christ.  Man 
does  not  now  occupy  the  place  for  which  God  in- 
tended him.  His  purpose  in  creation  is  not  yet 
fulfilled.  We  see  not  yet  all  things  put  under  him, 
but  we  see  Jesus,  who  was  made  a  little  lower  than 
the  angels  or  God  (the  argument  is  the  same  which- 
ever word  is  used),  we  see  him  who  identified  him- 
self with  humanity,  who  took  human  nature  into 
his  embrace  and  became  its  head,  its  representa- 
tive, its  ideal  impersonation,  we  see  him,  already 
"  crowned  with  glory  and  honor."  The  language 
of  the  psalm  contains  not  only  the  exalted  purpose 
of  God  in  man's  creation,  but  a  distinct  prophecy 
of  the  fulfillment  of  that  purpose  in  the  Messiah, 
who  was  the  ideal  man,  the  Son  of  man  as  well  as 
the  Son  of  God,  and  whose  ultimate  and  complete 
supremacy  is  foretold  in  psalm  and  prophecy,  in 
Gospel  and  Epistle.1 

Professor  Cheyne's  comment  acknowledges  the 
perfect  naturalness  of  this  reference  of  the  psalm  to 
Christ  as  the  ideal  man. 

Man,  in   short,  is   idealized,  for  (to  apply  the  words  of 


1  See  also  I  Cor.  15  :  25-27  ;  Eph.  I  :  22. 


1 82  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Heb.  2:8)"  we  see  not  yet  all  things  made  subject  to  him." 
How  natural  it  was,  and  (as  Doctor  Westcott  has  shown) 
how  natural  it  is,  to  apply  this  psalm  to  Christ,  the  Son  of 
man  !  But  there  is  an  application  still  nearer  to  the  letter 
of  the  text,  viz,  to  regenerate  humanity  (which  St.  Paul 
would  call  "  the  body  of  Christ").  The  psalm  is  virtually 
a  prophecy  of  the  glorification  of  the  race.1 

Yes,  but  not  apart  from  Christ,  to  whom  the  psalm 
is  declared  to  point,  and  in  whom  it  was  evidently 
fulfilled.  The  hope  of  a  glorified  humanity  rests 
upon  him,  "Who  was  made  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels  for  the  suffering  of  death,  .  .  that  he  by  the 
grace  of  God  should  taste  death  for  every  man." 

The  words  of  Ps.  3  1  :  5,  "  Into  thy  hand  I  com- 
mit my  spirit"  were  quoted  by  our  Lord,  when 
about  to  expire  upon  the  cross.2  They  can  hardly 
be  said,  however,  to  have  been  a  distinct  prophecy 
of  that  scene,  but  rather  an  expression  of  the  calm 
and  unshaken  faith  of  all  devout  souls  when  they 
stand  face  to  face  with  death  and  the  unseen  world, 
and  are  sustained  by  their  hope  in  the  unchanging 
love  and  uninterrupted  care  of  the  Father  of  our 
spirits.  Similar  words  were  spoken  by  the  first 
martyr,  Stephen,  when  the  stones  did  their  cruel 
work. 

In  Ps.  34  :  20  it  is  written,  "  He  keepetli  all  his 
bones  :  not  one  of  them  is  broken."  In  the  account 
of  the  crucifixion  of  our  Saviour,  as  given  by  John, 

1  Comp.  2  Peter  1:4.  2  Luke  23  :  46. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  I  S3 

it  is  said  that  the  Roman  soldiers  finished  their 
work  of  death  by  breaking  the  legs  of  the  com- 
panions of  Christ,  "  But  when  they  came  to  Jesus, 
and  saw  that  he  was  dead  already,  they  brake  not 
his  legs"  ;  and  then  it  is  significantly  added,  "For 
these  things  were  done,  that  the  Scripture  should 
be  fulfilled,  A  bone  of  him  shall  not  be  broken."  ' 
Professor  Toy  thinks  that  the  probable  reference  is 
to  the  language  of  the  psalm,  John  giving  a  special 
and  impliedly  unwarranted  application  to  Christ  of 
a  general  statement  of  "  the  care  that  God  exer- 
cises over  his  servants,  so  that  not  one  of  their 
bones  is  broken."  But  it  is  altogether  more  likely, 
if  not  absolutely  certain,  that  the  reference  is  to 
the  institution  of  the  Jewish  Passover,  and  the  in- 
structions for  the  preparation  of  the  lamb  to  be 
eaten,2  "  Neither  shall  ye  break  a  bone  thereof." 
John's  Gospel  is  the  one  that  holds  up  before  us 
Christ  as  "  The  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world,"  and  he  would  be  especially 
likely  to  notice  the  omission  of  the  soldiers,  and 
the  fulfillment  of  the  typical  rite  in  Christ.  It  was 
the  time  of  the  Passover,  when  the  crucifixion  took 
place.  We  are  told  that,  "  In  preparing  the  lamb 
for  roasting,  the  Jews  ran  spits  through  it  in  the 
form  of  a  cross,  as  the  Samaritans  do  to  this  day." 
The  paschal  lamb  is  declared  not  only  by  John,  but 


'John  19  :  36.  s  Exod.  12  :  46  ;  Num.  9  :  12. 


I84  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

by  Peter  and  Paul,  to  be  the  prefigure  of  Christ. 
Christ  is  "our  Passover."  He  was  a  true  paschal 
lamb.  The  prophetic  Scripture  was  fulfilled,  "  A 
bone  of  him  shall  not  be  broken."  When  in  cele- 
brating the  Lord's  Supper  it  is  said:  "This  is  my 
body,  which  is  broken  for  you,"  a  mistake  is  com- 
mitted. The  word  "broken"  is  not  found  in  the 
original.  It  has  been  inserted  in  the  translation. 
The  broken  bread  represents  the  wounded,  the 
bruised  body  of  Jesus,  but  not  his  broken  body. 
We  conclude,  therefore,  that  John  did  not  refer  to 
the  language  of  the  psalrri  as  containing  a  prophecy 
of  Christ.  It  was  not  a  general  reference  to  the  gen- 
eral care  of  God  over  the  life  of  his  servants,  but  a 
particular  reference  to  the  provision  which  God 
has  made  in  Christ  for  the  salvation  of  his  people. 
Godet's  comment  is  as  follows  : 

It  refers  to  the  manifestation  of  the  Messianic  character 
of  Jesus.  .  .  To  understand  what  John  felt  at  the  moment 
which  he  here  recalls,  we  must  suppose  a  believing  Jew, 
familiar  with  the  Old  Testament,  seeing  the  soldiers  ap- 
proach, who  are  to  break  the  legs  of  the  three  victims.  He 
asks  himself  anxiously  what  is  to  be  done  to  the  body  of 
the  Messiah,  which  is  still  more  sacred  than  the  paschal 
lamb.  And  lo  !  simultaneously  and  in  the  most  unexpected 
manner  this  body  is  rescued  from  the  brutal  operation  which 
threatened  it. 

In  Ps.  40  :  6-8  it  is  written,  "Sacrifice  and  offer- 
ing thou    didst  not  desire ;    mine    ears   hast    tlwu 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  185 

opened :  burnt  offering  and  sin  offering  hast  thou 
not  required.  Then  said  I,  Lo,  I  come :  in  the  vol- 
ume of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me,  I  delight  to  do 
thy  will,  0  my  God :  yea,  thy  law  is  within  my 
heart."  These  words  undoubtedly  had  a  primary 
reference  to  the  psalmist  himself.  He  had  learned 
the  important  lesson  which  God  was  ever  seeking 
to  teach  his  people,  that  obedience  was  better  than 
sacrifice,  that  the  costliest  offerings  and  the  most 
exact  performance  of  the  most  elaborate  ritual  were 
all  unavailing,  unless  there  was  present  a  heart 
devout,  sincere,  spiritual,  and  cheerfully  obedient 
to  all  the  known  will  of  God.  Animal  sacrifices 
were  empty  and  valueless,  a  very  mockery,  unless 
there  was  the  living  sacrifice  of  one's  self  upon 
God's  altar  of  service.  If  the  psalm  was  written 
by  David,  whose  name  it  bears,  it  is  in  entire  har- 
mony with  that  other  psalm  of  his,  the  fifty-first,  in 
which  he  says  :  "  For  thou  desirest  not  sacrifice  ; 
else  would  I  give  it :  thou  delightest  not  in  burnt 
offering.  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken 
spirit  :  a  broken  and  a  contrite  heart,  O  God,  thou 
wilt  not  despise."  Penitence,  obedience,  the  lov- 
ing heart,  the  consecrated  and  godly  life,  these  are 
the  tilings  which  distinguish  true  worshipers,  these 
are  the  things  which  are  acceptable  to  God.  So 
the  psalmist  had  learned,  and  according  to  this 
rule  he  undoubtedly  endeavored  to  order  his  life. 
But  the  psalm  was  to  find  its  perfect  illustration 


1 86  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

and  fulfillment  in  Jesus  Christ.  He  would  show  in 
himself  not  only  the  superiority  of  spiritual  worship 
and  obedience  to  all  sacrificial  offerings,  but  the 
completion  and  termination  of  the  outward  rites 
and  ceremonies  of  the  Mosaic  religion  in  the  one 
sacrifice  of  himself,  and  the  universal  substitution 
of  the  worship  of  the  heart  and  of  the  life.  This 
was  the  sublime  purpose  of  Christ's  coming  into 
the  world,  to  make  all  men  spiritual  worshipers  and 
loyally  obedient  to  the  Supreme  Will  of  the  uni- 
verse. The  central  thought  of  the  psalm  was  to 
find  its  perfect  expression  in  the  coming  Messiah. 
So  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  de- 
clares. It  was  as  if  Christ  had  announced,  at  his 
advent,  "The  days  of  your  ritualism  are  ended; 
the  old  dispensation  has  accomplished  its  prepara- 
tory and  educational  purpose  :  sacrifices  are  forever 
done  away  in  my  death  ;  the  consecration  of  the 
spirit  in  devout  faith  and  cheerful  obedience,  as 
illustrated  in  my  earthly  life,  is  the  one  supreme 
characteristic  of  all  true  religion  the  world  over." 
In  Heb.  10  :  5-7,  the  words  of  the  psalm  in  a  pe- 
culiar sense  are  attributed  to  Christ :  "  Wherefore, 
when  he  cometh  into  the  world,  he  saith,  Sacrifice 
and  offering  thou  wouldest  not,  but  a  body  hast 
thou  prepared  me  :  In  burnt  offerings  and  sacri- 
fices for  sin  thou  hast  had  no  pleasure.  Then,  said 
I,  Lo,  I  come  (in  the  volume  of  the  book  it  is 
written  of  me)  to  do  thy  will,  O  God." 


THE    MESSIAH     IN    THE    PSALMS  187 

These  words  are  quoted  from  the  Septuagint  ver- 
sion, with  which  the  writer  was  familiar.  One  varia- 
tion from  the  Hebrew  has  occasioned  much  dis- 
cussion. Instead  of  "  mine  ears  hast  thou  opened," 
the  Epistle  reads,  "a  body  hast  thou  prepared  me," 
which  Professor  Toy  thinks  "comes  probably  from 
a  scribal  corruption  of  the  Greek  text"  in  the  Sep- 
tuagint. In  the  Hebrew  the  difference  between 
the  two  readings  is  so  slight  that  one  might  easily 
be  mistaken  for  the  other.  It  has  been  suggested 
by  De  Wette  that  if  the  Septuagint  had  translated 
it  "  ears  hast  thou  prepared  me,"  the  thought  which 
the  New  Testament  writer  finds  in  the  passage 
would  have  been  unimpaired.  It  may  be  that  the 
translator  simply  substituted  the  whole  for  a  part, 
"  body  "  for  "  ears,"  which  would  not  have  changed 
the  sense  of  the  passage.  If  a  man's  body  has 
been  prepared  as  an  instrument  to  do  God's  will, 
all  the  separate  members  will  be  ready  to  do  their 
various  functions,  the  ears  to  hear,  the  eyes  to  see, 
the  hands  to  perform,  and  the  feet  to  run  in  the 
way  of  God's  commandments.  It  cannot  be  said 
that  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  takes  any  advantage 
of  the  use  of  the  word  "  body,"  and  carries  the 
thought  beyond  the  exact  meaning  of  the  psalm, 
as  he  might  have  been  tempted  to  do  by  the  nature 
of  his  argument.  Tholuck,  as  stated  by  Dr.  John 
Pye  Smith,  observes  that  the  offering  of  the  body 
of  Christ  is  not  by  any  means  the  thing  implied  in 


1 88  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

the  argument  of  the  apostle  in  itself  and  solely. 
It  was  the  entire  obedience  of  Christ  in  all  his 
affections,  actions,  life,  and  death — of  which  the 
sufferings  of  the  mere  bodily  frame  were  but  the 
last  term — that  constituted  his  inestimable  sacrifice. 
He  cites  the  excellent  passage  of  Calvin  : 

The  apostle  follows  the  Septuagint,  a  body,  etc.  ;  for  the 
writers  were  not  superstitious  in  the  reciting  of  sentences 
quoted,  only  they  took  care  not  to  make  erroneous  applica- 
tions of  the  Old  Testament  to  serve  their  own  convenience. 
We  should  constantly  keep  in  view  what  was  their  purpose 
in  making  any  citation  ;  for  in  having  respect  to  that  pur- 
pose they  were  diligently  scrupulous  not  to  put  upon  the 
Scripture  any  sense  other  than  its  own  proper  meaning  ;  but 
with  respect  both  to  mere  words  and  to  some  other  circum- 
stances which  are  not  now  our  subject,  they  allowed  them- 
selves a  just  and  rational  liberty. 

Dr.  Franklin  Johnson  has  well  remarked  : 

It  should  be  added  that  the  underlying  sense  of  the  phrase 
in  the  Septuagint  is  the  same  with  that  of  the  Hebrew 
phrase,  though  the  language  is  so  different.  The  Hebrew 
says,  "Mine  ears  hast  thou  opened,"  that  is,  to  hear  the 
divine  voice  in  an  obedient  spirit.  The  Septuagint  says, 
"A  body  didst  thou  prepare  for  me,"  that  is,  as  an  organ, 
by  means  of  which  I  may  obey  the  divine  voice.  Thus  in 
both  cases  the  obedience  of  Christ  unto  death  is  presented 
to  the  reader  as  the  substitute  for  the  sacrifices  of  the  Mosaic 
dispensation.  This  is  maintained  by  all  critics  of  all  schools. 
The  writer  of  the  Epistle,  therefore,  might  have  employed 
the  phrase  of  the  Septuagint  with  some  emphasis  ;  and  his 
refusal  to  do  so  is  an  interesting  evidence  of  his  scrupulous 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 89 

care  to  keep  within  the  bounds  of  propriety  in  the  use  of 
the  Old  Testament. 

Perowne  thinks  that  the  words  of  the  psalm 

Are  not  quoted  as  a  prophecy  which  was  fulfilled  in  Christ, 
but  the  writer  finds  words  which  once  expressed  the  devo- 
tion of  a  true  Israelite  to  be  far  more  strikingly  expressive, 
indeed  in  their  highest  sense  only  truly  expressive,  of  the 
perfect  obedience  of  the  Son  of  God.  All  true  words  of 
God's  saints  of  old,  all  high  and  holy  aspirations,  however 
true  and  excellent  in  their  mouths,  went  far  beyond  them- 
selves and  found  their  perfect  consummation  only  in  him 
who  was  the  perfect  man. 

These  words  would  be  true  of  many  quotations  ; 
but  in  this  instance  they  fail  to  represent  the  full 
thought  of  the  New  Testament  writer.  For  he  uses 
the  quotation  not  so  much  as  an  illustration  as  an 
argument. 

The  language  of  Dr.  John  Pye  Smith  gives  an 
accurate  interpretation  of  the  passage  and  seems 
none  too  strong  : 

The  terms  of  the  passage  appear  to  require  absolutely  the 
sense  of  the  abrogation  of  the  animal  sacrifices,  by  a  per- 
son who  declares  that  the  very  book  which  prescribed  those 
sacrifices  had  its  superior  reference  to  him,  and  that  he  him- 
self would  present  the  only  sacrifice  that  should  be  worthy 
of  the  Deity  to  accept.  I  must  despair  of  ever  acquiring 
consistent  knowledge  or  satisfaction  on  any  subject  of  ra- 
tional inquiry  ;  I  must  give  up  the  first  principles  of  evi- 
dence as  to  prophecy  and  interpretation  and  renouncing 
all  sober  rules  of  interpretation,  commit  myself  to  the  ex- 


190  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

travagance  of  fancy  and  arbitrary  dictates  if  this  be  not  a 
clear  and  characteristic  description  of  the  Messiah.  The 
summary  of  the  psalm  which  Michaelis  prefixes  to  his  trans- 
lation well  expresses  its  design  and  character  :  "  A  great  per- 
son, who  describes  himself  as  the  only  offering  acceptable 
to  God,  and  to  whom  Moses  alluded  in  all  his  laws  about 
sacrifices,  in  his  sufferings  prays  to  God,  expects  help  from 
him,  and  promises  to  glorify  his  name.  Thus  the  person 
who  speaks  is  not  David,  but  one  greater  than  he,  even 
Christ,  the  great  sacrifice  for  the  human  race." 

In  Ps.  41  :  9  we  find  these  words  which  appear 
again,  in  part,  in  the  New  Testament  narrative  : 
"  Yea,  mine  ozvn  familiar  friend,  in  zuhom  I  trusted, 
wJiich  did  eat  of  my  bread,  hath  lifted  up  his  heel 
against  me."  These  words  were  prompted  by  some 
personal  incident  in  the  psalmist's  experience,  where 
his  confidence  had  been  misplaced  and  one  who 
had  shared  his  favor  and  his  hospitality  had  proved 
false  at  heart  and  basely  deceitful  and  treacherous. 
These  words  are  quoted  by  Christ,  as  recorded  by 
John,  as  having  been  fulfilled  in  the  treachery  of 
Judas.  Christ,  however,  omits  the  first  part  of  the 
verse,  as  if  he  would  not  admit  that  there  was  any 
time  when  he  trusted  Judas  and  did  not  know  the 
deceitfulness  of  his  heart.  In  John  13  :  18  we 
read  :  "  I  speak  not  of  you  all  :  I  know  whom  I 
have  chosen  :  but  that  the  Scripture  may  be  ful- 
filled, He  that  eateth  bread  with  me  hath  lifted  up 
his  heel  against  me."  Professor  Toy  says  :  "Ac- 
cording to  the  account  given  in  John,  the  psalm  is 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  I9I 

regarded  by  Jesus  as  Messianic,  and  these  words 
applied  to  the  treachery  of  Judas."  As  to  the 
meaning  which  should  be  ascribed  to  the  words, 
"that  it  may  be  fulfilled,"  in  this  place  and  prob- 
ably in  some  other  places,  the  remark  of  Perowne 
is  eminently  wise  and  candid  : 

It  is  evident  that  "  the  Scripture  is  fulfilled"  not  merely 
when  a  prediction  receives  its  accomplishment,  but  when 
words  descriptive  of  certain  circumstances  in  the  life  of 
the  Old  Testament  saints  finds  a  still  fuller  and  truer  reali- 
zation— one  not  foreseen  by  the  psalmist,  yet  one  no  less  de- 
signed by  God — in  the  circumstances  of  our  Lord's  earthly 
life. 

The  most  that  can  be  said  is,  that  this  psalm  is 
Messianic  in  the  sense  that,  according  to  Christ's 
statement,  David  and  his  pretended  friend  were 
typical  of  Jesus  and  the  traitor. 

Godet's  opinion  is  expressed  as  follows  : 

Ps.  41,  from  the  tenth  verse  of  which  this  quotation  is 
taken,  is  but  indirectly  Messianic  ;  its  immediate  subject  is 
the  just  man  in  affliction,  but  this  ideal  is  only  perfectly 
realized  in  the  suffering  Messiah.  Among  the  troubles 
which  befall  the  righteous,  the  psalmist  (David  according  to 
the  title,  Jeremiah  according  to  Hitzig),  places  in  the  front 
rank  the  treachery  of  an  intimate  friend.  In  the  mouth 
of  David  this  would  refer  to  Ahithophel.  This  last  stroke, 
Jesus  would  say,  cannot  fail  to  reach  me  also,  in  whom  all 
the  sorrows  as  well  as  all  the  virtues  of  the  righteous  suf- 
ferer are  combined.  This  is,  in  the  context,  the  meaning 
of  the  formula  :    "  That  the  Scripture  might  be  fulfilled." 


192  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Ps.  68  is  acknowledged  to  be  Messianic  in  its 
general  scope  according  to  principles  explained 
in  the  last  chapter.  It  anticipates  a  condition  of 
things  to  be  brought  about  only  through  the  uni- 
versal prevalence  of  Christianity.  Indeed,  it  is  a 
magnificent  hymn,  portraying  in  language  of  mar- 
velous strength  and  beauty  the  onward  march  of 
God's  kingdom  among  the  nations.  Some  have 
seen  in  it  only  a  direct  prophecy  of  Christ  and  his 
reign  and  no  local  reference  whatever,  believing  it 
to  foretell  in  vivid  and  splendid  imagery  his  advent 
upon  earth,  the  blessed  effect  of  his  truth,  his  res- 
urrection and  ascension  into  heaven,  and  his  do- 
minion and  reign.  Other  scholars,  properly  regard- 
ing it  as  occasioned  by  some  local  event,  differ 
widely  and  irreconcilably  as  to  its  primary  applica- 
tion. But  all  acknowledge  the  vigor,  the  richness, 
the  rhetorical  splendor  of  the  psalm,  and  that  it  re- 
quired a  poet  of  extraordinary  genius  to  compose 
it.  Why  not  David,  the  sweet  singer,  the  royal 
bard,  the  inspired  laureate  of  Israel,  to  whom  it  is 
ascribed?  Greece  had  but  one  Homer,  Italy  but 
one  Dante,  England  but  one  Shakespeare,  and 
Israel  but  one  David.  It  is  impossible  not  to  re- 
cognize the  Messianic  spirit  which  pervades  the 
psalm  and  the  Messianic  hope  and  expectation 
which  inspired  it  and  pulsate  in  many  of  its  utter- 
ances. It  pictures  to  us  the  victorious  march  and 
glorious  entry  of  God  into  his  sanctuary  on  Zion. 


THE    MESSIAH    IX    THE    PSALMS  193 

This  is  described  under  figures  borrowed  from  the  triumph 
of  an  earthly  conqueror  who,  after  having  vanquished  his 
enemies  and  taken  possession  of  their  country,  marches  in 
solemn  procession  at  the  head  of  his  troops  to  occupy  the 
city  which  he  had  selected  as  his  capital  and  the  seat  of 
empire,  .  .  where  he  reigns  in  .  .  .  universal  dominion, 
acknowledged  and  feared  by  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

Only  a  few  specimen  verses  can  be  given  to  show 
the  power,  the  sweep,  the  sublimity  of  the  lan- 
guage.     Notice  how  majestically  the  psalm  opens  : 

"Let  God  arise,  let  his  enemies  be  scattered.  .  . 
As  smoke  is  driven  away,  so  drive  them  away  :  as 
wax  meltetli  before  the  fire,  so  let  the  wicked  perish 
at  the  presence  of  God. 

"But  let  the  rig  Jit  cons  be  glad ;  let  them  rejoice 
before  God :  yea,  let  them  exceedingly  rejoice.  Sing 
unto  God,  sing  praises  to  his  name :  extol  him  that 
rideth  upon  the  heavens  by  his  name  J  AH,  and  re- 
joice before  him."'' 

The  beneficence  of  his  reign  is  thus  set  forth  : 

"  A  father  of  the  fatherless,  and  a  judge  of  the 
widows,  is  God  in  his  holy  habitation.  God  setteth 
the  solitary  in  families  :  he  bringeth  out  those  which 
arc  bound  with  chains." 

The  terrible  power  and  successful  purpose  of 
God  arc  thus  expressed  : 

"  0  God,  when  thou  wen  test  forth  before  thy 
people,  when  thou  didst  march  through  tin  wilder- 
ness ;  the  earth  shook,  the  heavens  also  dropped  at 
the  presence  of  God." 


194  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

"  The  chariots  of  God  are  twenty  tJioasand,  even 
thousands  of  angels." 

"  Why  leap  ye,  ye  high  hills  ?  this  is  the  hill 
which  God  desircth  to  dwell  in  ;  yea,  the  Lord  will 
dive  11  in  it  for  ever." 

"  Thou  hast  ascended  on  high,  thou  hast  led  cap- 
tivity captive  :  thou  hast  received  gifts  for  men.  .  . 
Blessed  be  the  Lord,  who  daily  loadcth  us  with  bene- 
fits, even  the  God  of  our  salvation." 

His  universal  dominion  is  declared  in  these  words  : 

"  Princes  shall  come  out  of  Egypt ;  Ethiopia  shall 
soon  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God.  Sing  unto 
God,  ye  kingdoms  of  the  earth  ;  0  sing  praises  unto 
the  Lord." 

Such  is  the  power,  the  benevolence,  the  glory, 
the  dominion  of  God,  proclaimed  and  manifested, 
realized  and  accomplished,  as  never  before,  through 
the  incarnation,  the  doctrine,  the  death,  the  resur- 
rection, and  ascension  of  our  Saviour,  to  whom 
"  be  glory  and  majesty,  dominion  and  power,  both 
now  and  for  ever." 

Although  the  psalm  is  so  strongly  Messianic,  there 
is  but  a  single  direct  quotation  from  it  in  the  New 
Testament.  In  Eph.  4  :  8  the  Apostle  Paul  quotes 
the  eighteenth  verse  in  this  way  :  "Wherefore  he 
saith,  When  he  ascended  up  on  high,  he  led  cap- 
tivity captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men."  The  in- 
spired apostle  applies  the  words  clearly  to  the  res- 
urrection  and   ascension   of  our  Lord  and  to  the 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  1 95 

glorious  results  of  his  earthly  mission.  The  ascent 
of  the  ark  of  the  Lord,  which  was  the  symbol  of 
Jehovah's  presence,  into  Mount  Zion,  prefigured 
the  ascent  of  Christ  into  heaven.  And  as  the  tri- 
umphal procession  of  the  returning  victor  brought 
with  it  the  captives  and  the  spoils  to  be  distributed 
among  the  people,  so  Christ  returning  from  the 
conflict  and  the  conquest  of  earth  is  represented  as 
bringing  his  captives  with  him,  sin  and  death  and 
hell,  and  all  the  powers  of  evil  chained,  as  it  were, 
to  his  triumphal  chariot,  and  also  the  rich  spoils  of 
life  and  immortality,  an  abundance  of  gifts  to  be 
distributed  freely  among  the  children  of  men. 

The  word  in  the  psalm  is  "received,"  which,  ac- 
cording to  Meyer,  means  received  in  order  to  give. 
The  apostle  takes  the  full  thought  in  its  application 
to  Christ  and  says  "gave."  He,  the  crucified  and 
ascended  Lord,  has  come  into  possession  of  all 
spiritual  treasure,  and  lives  and  reigns  that  he  may 
dispense  it  to  a  needy  world.  A  true  king  receives 
that  he  may  impart.  He  takes  in  order  to  give. 
What  are  some  of  his  gifts  to  men  ?  Christ  gave 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  "convince  the  world  of  sin,  of 
righteousness,  and  of  judgment."  "If  I  go,  I  will 
send  him  unto  you."  He  gave  the  Christian  min- 
istry and  appointed  it  to  its  necessary  service.  "  And 
he  gave  some,  apostles,  and  some,  prophets,  and 
some,  evangelists,  and  some,  pastors  and  teachers, 
for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints   unto  the  work  of 


I96  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

ministering,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ." 
He  gives  the  peace  of  forgiveness  to  all  penitent 
and  believing  souls.  "  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my 
peace  I  give  unto  you.  Not  as  the  world  giveth, 
give  I  unto  you."  He  gives  the  water  of  salvation 
unto  all  thirsty  ones.  "The  water  that  I  shall  give 
him,  shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water,  springing  up 
into  everlasting  life."  He  gives  all  things  that  are 
needful  to  secure  purity  and  steadfastness  in  the 
Christian  profession.  "According  as  his  divine 
power  hath  given  unto  us  all  things  that  pertain 
unto  life  and  godliness,  through  the  knowledge  of 
him  that  hath  called  us  to  glory  and  virtue,  whereby 
are  given  unto  us  exceeding  great  and  precious 
promises."  He  gives  to  all  obedient  followers  that 
fullness  and  richness  and  expansion  of  life  which  is 
called  eternal  life.  "  My  sheep  hear  my  voice,  and 
I  know  them,  and  they  follow  me ;  and  I  give  unto 
them  eternal  life,  and  they  shall  never  perish,  neither 
shall  any  man  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand."  He 
gives  to  all  weak  and  struggling  disciples  the  assur- 
ance of  final  and  complete  victory.  "Thanks  be 
to  God,  who  giveth  us  the  victory  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

"  He  led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto 
men."  So  said  the  psalmist  and  so  says  the  New 
Testament.  Since  his  ascension  this  has  been  his 
kingly  occupation.  We  may  all,  if  we  will,  share 
in  the  priceless  gifts  of  the  ascended  Son  of  God. 


CHAPTER  IX 

SPECIAL  MESSIANIC  QUOTATIONS 
(continued) 


IX 


There  are  a  few  more  special  refer- 
Special        ences  to  Christ  in  the  Psalms  which 

«  have    been    quoted    by  New  Testa- 

Quotations  l  .   ' 

merit  writers,  \\rhich  it  will  be  neces- 
sary for  us  to  consider  in  order  to  make  our  review 
of  them  fairly  complete.  Quite  a  number  of 
psalms  which  are  full  of  the  Messianic  hope  and 
point  clearly  to  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  and 
triumph  of  the  Messiah,  having  failed  of  quo- 
tation in  the  Christian  Scriptures,  do  not  neces- 
sarily come  within  the  scope  of  our  present  pur- 
pose. Two  of  these  as  specimens,  viz,  72  and 
46,  we  have  already  considered,  and  others  have 
been  indicated,  the  Messianic  character  of  all  of 
which  is  uniformly  conceded,  both  by  rabbinical 
and  Christian  scholars. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  though  verses  are 
quoted  from  some  psalms,  in  the  New  Testament, 
as  applicable  to  Christ,  the  entire  psalms  may  not 
be  Messianic ;  indeed,  other  verses  of  the  psalms, 
which  contain  confessions  of  human  weakness  and 
passion  and  sin,  preclude  any  such  supposition. 
The  human  and  divine  elements  are  woven  to- 
gether in  a  single  composition,  both  the  local  refer- 

199 


200  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

ence  which  is  true  to  its  human  subject,  and  the 
prophetic  reference  which  is  true  to  the  future 
Messiah,  being  apparent.  Prophetic  intimations 
are  like  pictures  set  in  human  framework,  like  bril- 
liant flashes  of  light  out  of  surrounding  clouds. 

A  good  illustration  of  this  kind  of  Messianic 
literature  is  found  in  Psalm  69.  There  is  no  psalm, 
and  indeed  no  portion  of  the  Old  Testament,  that 
is  more  frequently  quoted  in  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures than  this,  with  the  exception  of  Psalms  22 
and  1 10.  Not  less  than  eight  quotations  from  it, 
or  references  to  it,  are  found  in  the  Gospels  of 
Matthew  and  John,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  six  of  them  pertaining 
to  Christ,1  one  to  the  punishment  of  Judas  for  his 
treachery  toward  his  Master,2  and  one  to  the  puni- 
tive rejection  of  the  Jews  for  their  rejection  of  the 
divinely  appointed  Messiah.3  Yet  in  the  midst  of 
these  quoted  passages,  or  rather  surrounding  them, 
are  verses  which  can  by  no  possible  means  be  re- 
ferred to  Christ,  and  are  utterly  incongruous  with 
his  character.  They  are  rather  expressions  of  the 
spirit  and  character  of  the  psalmist.  Indeed,  those 
passages  which  are  referable  to  Christ,  and  rightly 
so,  are  sometimes  such,  quite  as  much  by  way  of 
illustration  and  application  as  by  distinct  and  spe- 
cific prediction. 

1  Matt.  27  :  27-30 ;  27  :  34 ;    John  2:17;   15  :  25  ;    Rom.  15  :  3. 
2  Acts  1  :  20.  3Rom.  11:9,  10. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  201 

The  following  words  from  Prof.  H.  B.  Hackett 
will  make  our  meaning  plain  : 

A  class  of  psalms  reckoned  as  Messianic  in  a  subordinate 
sense  are  those  which  describe  general  relations  of  truths, 
which  contain  prophecies  or  inspired  declarations,  which 
arc  verified  as  often  as  individuals  are  placed  in  particular 
circumstances,  which  lay  within  the  view  not  necessarily  of 
the  writer,  but  of  the  Holy  Spirit  at  whose  dictation  they 
were  uttered.  Thus  the  sixty-ninth  Psalm  is  quoted  in  Acts 
i  :  20  (see  ver.  25)  as  if  descriptive  of  the  treatment  which 
Christ  should  receive  at  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  especially 
of  Judas.  The  entire  psalm  cannot  be  strictly  Messianic, 
for  in  ver.  5  the  speaker  says  :  "O  God,  thou  knowest  my 
foolishness,  and  my  sins  are  not  hid  from  thee."  The  sub- 
ject of  the  psalm  is  rather  the  experience  of  the  righteous 
in  this  world  of  treachery  and  wickedness  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  conduct  of  the  ungodly  toward  the  righteous  and 
their  desert  of  punishment  on  the  other.  Hence  when 
Peter  quotes  a  passage  of  the  psalm  as  spoken  of  Judas  and 
fulfilled  in  him,  we  may  understand  him  as  declaring  that 
the  perfidy  of  Judas  identified  him  fully  with  such  persecu- 
tors of  the  righteous  as  the  psalm  contemplates,  and  hence 
that  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  suffer  the  doom  of  those 
who  sin  in  so  aggravated  a  manner.  The  one  hundred  and 
ninth  Psalm,  and  others,  are  susceptible  of  this  mode  of  in- 
terpretation. 

Similar  words  are  used  by  Perowne  in  his  intro- 
duction to  the  sixty-ninth  Psalm  : 

It  will  be  observed  that  many  of  these  quotations  are 
made  generally  by  way  of  illustration  and  application, 
rather  than  as  prophecies  which  have  received  fulfillment 
Enough,  however,  remains  to  justify  the  Messianic  sense  of 


202  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

the  psalm,  provided  our  interpretation  be  fair  and  sober. 
.  .  .  The  history  of  prophets  and  holy  men  of  old  is  a  typi- 
cal history.  They  were,  it  may  be  said,  representative 
men,  suffering  and  hoping,  not  for  themselves  only,  but  for 
the  nation  whom  they  represented.  In  their  sufferings  they 
were  feeble  and  transient  images  of  the  great  sufferer  who 
by  his  sufferings  accomplished  man' s  redemption  ;  their 
hopes  could  never  be  fully  realized  but  in  the  issue  of  his 
work,  nor  their  aspirations  be  truly  uttered  save  by  his 
mouth.  But  confessions  of  sinfulness  and  imprecations  of 
vengeance,  mingling  with  these  better  hopes  and  aspira- 
tions, are  a  beacon  to  guide  us  in  our  interpretation.  They 
teach  us  that  the  psalm  is  not  a  prediction  ;  that  the 
psalmist  does  not  put  himself  in  the  place  of  the  Messiah 
to  come.  They  show  us  that  here,  as  indeed  in  all  Scrip- 
tures, two  streams,  the  human  and  the  divine,  flow  on  in 
the  same  channel.  They  seem  to  remind  us  that,  if  the 
prophets  and  minstrels  of  old  were  types  of  the  great 
teacher  of  the  church,  yet  they  were  so  only  in  some  re- 
spects, and  not  altogether.  They  bear  witness  to  the  im- 
perfection of  those  by  whom  God  spake  in  time  past  unto 
the  fathers,  in  many  portions  and  in  many  ways,  even  whilst 
they  point  to  him  who  is  the  living  Word,  the  perfect  reve- 
lation of  the  Father. 

The  following  remark  of  Dr.  E.  P.  Barrows  shows 
the  method  of  interpretation  resorted  to  by  the 
Exclusive  Messianists,  and  its  unreasonableness. 

Those  who  apply  these  psalms  exclusively  to  Christ  as- 
sume that  these  confessions  of  sin  are  made  in  a  vicarious 
way,  the  Messiah  assuming  the  character  of  a  sinner  because 
"the  Lord  hath  laid  on  him  the  iniquity  of  us  all."  *     But 

4Isa.  53  :  6. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  203 

the  form  of  these  confessions  forbids  such  an  interpretation. 
When  the  psalmist  says,  "Mine  iniquities  have  taken  hold 
upon  me,"  "O  God,  thou  knowest  my  foolishness,  and  my 
sins  are  not  hid  from  thee,"  we  cannot  understand  such 
language  of  anything  else  than  personal  sinfulness. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  examine  the  particular 
quotations  from  this  psalm.  In  ver.  4  it  reads  : 
"  They  that  hate  me  without  a  cause  are  more  than 
the  hairs  of  mine  head."  In  John  15:25  Christ  is 
represented  as  saying  :  "  But  this  cometh  to  pass, 
that  the  word  might  be  fulfilled  that  is  written  in 
their  law,  They  hated  me  without  a  cause."  The 
quotation  is  probably  from  the  psalm,  and  presents 
our  Lord  as  receiving  in  himself  the  full  violence 
of  the  senseless  and  unreasonable  hatred  which 
God's  servant  of  old  had  incurred  to  some  extent. 
The  psalmist  was  an  imperfect  type.  In  Christ 
was  the  illustration,  and  the  culmination  of  what 
unjustifiable  opposition  and  enmity  could  do  against 
its  object.  His  lot  was  in  the  fullest  sense  the  lot 
of  the  righteous  in  a  world  of  sin.  Of  him,  as  of 
no  other  being,  could  it  be  truthfully  said,  "They 
hated  him  without  a  cause." 

Geikie  paraphrases  Christ's  words  as  follows  : 
"  Yet  this  hatred  of  me  by  the  unbelieving  world 
is  not  a  mere  accident  or  chance,  but  was  foreseen 
by  God  and  spoken  of  in  ancient  prophecy,  as  you 
read,  'They  hated  me  without  a  cause.'  " 

In   ver.  9  it   is  written  :   "For  the  zeal  of  thine 


204  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

house  hath  eaten  me  rip  ;  and  the  reproaclies  of  them 
that  reproached  thee  are  fallen  upon  me."  In  the 
second  chapter  of  John's  Gospel,  after  Christ's 
severe  denunciation  of  the  money  changers  in  the 
temple,  and  his  expulsion  of  them  from  the  sacred 
edifice,  it  is  added  by  the  evangelist  :  "  His  dis- 
ciples remembered  that  it  was  written,  '  Zeal  for  thy 
house  shall  eat  me  up.'  "  The  future  tense  is  the 
authorized  reading,  and  John  evidently  uses  the 
future  to  show  that  he  considers  the  psalm  Messi- 
anic, and  that  the  remarkable  conduct  of  Christ  is 
a  proof  that  he  is  the  Messiah,  and  that  the  pre- 
diction is  fulfilled  in  him.     Prof.  C.  H.  Toy  says  : 

The  psalm  passage  was  remembered  and  quoted  by  the 
disciples  when  they  saw  their  Master,  heedless  of  the  con- 
sequences to  himself,  engaged  in  driving  away  the  polluters 
of  the  temple  enclosure.  The  psalm  was  regarded  as  Mes- 
sianic, and  this  occurrence  in  the  life  of  Jesus  as  the  fulfill- 
ment of  a  prediction.  Hence  the  evangelist  felt  himself 
warranted  in  writing  "  shall  eat  me  up." 

It  may  be  replied  that  John  took  no  unwarranted 
liberties  with  the  text.  Prophecy  was  often  ex- 
pressed in  Hebrew  by  the  perfect  tense,  as  if  the 
events  had  already  taken  place.  See  the  fifty-third 
chapter  of  Isaiah.  The  remainder  of  the  verse  is 
quoted  in  Rom.  15  :  3  as  especially  applicable  to 
the  Saviour,  "  For  even  Christ  pleased  not  himself; 
but,  as  it  is  written,  The  reproaches  of  them  that  re- 
proached thee  fell  on  me." 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  205 

In  ver.  12,  "They  that  sit  in  the  gate  speak 
against  me  ;  and  I  was  the  song  of  the  drunkards," 
is  believed  to  be  a  foreshadowing  of  the  mocking 
treatment  of  Christ  by  the  drunken  Roman  soldiers 
in  the  pretorium,  as  recorded  in  Matt.  27  :  27-30. 

In  ver.  20  and  21  we  read:  "Reproach  hath 
broken  my  heart;  and  I  am  full  of  heaviness:  and 
I  looked  for  some  to  take  pity,  but  there  was  none; 
and  for  comforters,  but  I  found  none.  They  gave 
me  also  gall  for  my  meat ;  and  in  my  thirst  they  gave 
me  vinegar  to  drink."  This  language  seems  little 
less  than  an  accurate  and  sympathetic  description 
of  the  crucifixion  of  our  Saviour,  and  the  scenes 
connected  with  it,  his  breaking  heart — which  many 
believe  to  be  a  physical  fact — his  crushing  grief  and 
loneliness,  his  desertion  even  by  his  disciples,  his 
mute  and  vain  appeal  for  pity  and  comfort,  all  of 
which,  we  are  told,  took  place  "  that  the  Scriptures 
of  the  prophets  might  be  fulfilled,"  l  and  the  literal 
presentation  of  vinegar  and  gall  to  his  thirsty  lips.2 
This  seems  like  a  bit  of  narrative  taken  from  one 
of  the  Gospels.  Had  the  psalmist  been  present  as 
an  eye-witness,  his  account  might  have  been  fuller, 
but  it  could  not  have  been  more  accurate.  No 
one  can  read  these  words  without  the  conviction 
that,  however  true  they  may  have  been  to  the  ex- 
perience of  the  psalmist,  they  found  a  remarkably 

1  Matt.  26  :  56.  2  Matt.  27  :  30-34. 


206  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

literal  fulfillment  in  the  experience  of  the  Son  of 
God. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  fact 
that  the  language  of  ver.  22  and  23  is  quoted  by 
the  Apostle  Paul,1  as  finding  its  fulfillment  in  the 
judicial  blindness  and  rejection  of  the  Jews  because 
of  their  repudiation  of  their  own  Messiah,  and  also 
to  the  fact  that  the  Apostle  Peter  cites  with  some 
freedom  verse  twenty-five  as  foretelling  the  doom 
of  Judas  Iscariot.  All  these  citations  abundantly 
establish  the  Messianic  character  of  the  psalm,  al- 
though, as  has  been  said,  the  distinctly  human  ele- 
ment is  a  prominent  feature  of  it. 

The  seventy-eighth  Psalm  has  two  verses  which 
are  quoted  in  the  New  Testament,  viz,  the  second 
and  the  twenty-fourth.  The  second  verse  reads  : 
"  I  will  open  my  month  in  a  parable  :  I  will  utter 
dark  sayings  of  old,'"  or,  I  will  disclose  the  secret 
lessons  of  the  past.  The  psalmist  declares  his  pur- 
pose to  impart  important  instruction  from  the  les- 
sons of  the  history  of  God's  people,  the  term 
4<  parable  "  being  used,  as  has  been  said,  "with 
large  latitude  in  the  Old  Testament,"  as  covering 
illustrations,  sententious  remarks,  and  any  form  of 
didactic,  poetic  literature.  The  Evangelist  Matthew, 
having  recorded  several  of  Christ's  instructive  par- 
ables, finds  in  the  great  Teacher  and  in  his  method 

1  Rom.  11  :  9,  10 ;  see  also  2  Cor.  3  :  14. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  20"J 

of  imparting  truth,  a  beautiful  illustration  and  ful- 
fillment of  the  psalmist's  words.  In  13  :  34,  35  he 
says  :  "All  these  things  spake  Jesus  unto  the  mul- 
titude in  parables  ;  and  without  a  parable  spake  he 
not  unto  them  :  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was 
spoken  by  the  prophet,  saying,  I  will  open  my 
mouth  in  parables  ;  I  will  utter  things  which  have 
been  kept  secret  from  the  foundation  of  the  world." 
This  quotation  is  from  the  Scptuagint,  and  is  quite 
free,  though  it  does  not  depart  from  the  meaning 
of  the  original.  The  words  of  the  psalm  announce 
the  method  of  instruction  which  God,  who  was 
speaking  in  them  by  his  Spirit,  employed  in  teach- 
ing the  people.  The  writer  of  the  Gospel,  as  he 
sees  Christ's  method  of  presenting  truth,  is  not 
only  reminded  of  the  psalmist's  statement,  but  evi- 
dently confesses  his  belief  that  the  statement  was 
prophetic,  and  was  being  fulfilled  in  Christ  and  his 
method  of  teaching.  Doctor  Broadus  says  of  the 
phrase,  "  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  "  : 

This  expression  requires  us  to  understand  a  real  fulfill- 
ment of  a  real  prediction — unless  that  idea  could  be  shown 
to  be  in  the  given  case  impossible — and  a  fulfillment  de- 
signedly brought  about  in  the  course  of  providence.  .  . 
The  evangelist  states  it  as  a  part  of  the  divine  purpose,  in 
our  Lord's  adoption  of  the  parabolic  method  of  instruc- 
tion, that  there  should  be  a  fulfillment  of  that  prophetic 
saying.  Unless  we  can  show  that  there  was  no  such  pro- 
phetic relation,  we  must  certainly  accept  the  evangelist's 
statement. 


208  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Another  view  of  the  quotation  is  given  by  Pe- 
rowne  who  says : 

How  are  we  to  understand  the  quotation  made  by  St. 
Matthew  of  this  passage,  who  sees  a  fulfillment  of  it  in  the 
parables  spoken  by  our  Lord  ?  It  cannot  be  supposed  for  a 
moment  that  these  words  were  a  prediction  of  our  Lord's 
mode  of  teaching,  or  that  he  himself  is  here  the  speaker. 
But  here,  as  elsewhere,  that  which  the  Old  Testament  prophet 
says  of  himself,  finds  its  fittest  expression,  its  highest  re- 
alization, in  the  great  Prophet  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

This  view  does  not  seem  to  meet  the  full  de- 
mands of  the  language  of  the  evangelist,  which 
evidently  refers  to  a  divine  purpose  expressed  in 
the  words  of  the  psalm,  which  found  a  fulfillment 
in  the  teaching  of  Christ. 

In  ver.  24  we  read,  "And  had  rained  down  man- 
na upon  them  to  cat,  and  had  given  of  the  com  of 
heaven."  The  Jews,  when  Christ  was  pressing  up- 
on them  his  claims  upon  their  faith  in  his  divine 
character  and  mission,  cited  the  language  of  the 
psalm,  or  the  substance  of  it,  and  demanded  of 
Christ  some  similar  sign  and  divine  credential. 
"  They  said  therefore  unto  him,  What  sign  showest 
thou  then,  that  we  may  see,  and  believe  thee  ? 
what  dost  thou  work  ?  Our  fathers  did  eat  manna 
in  the  desert ;  as  it  is  written,  He  gave  them  bread 
from  heaven  to  eat."  x  It  was  the  Jews  who  cited 
these  words  from  their  own  Scriptures. 

1  John  6  :  30,  31. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  200, 

Dr.  Hovey  says  on  this  passage  : 

The  mention  of  food  that  does  not  perish,  but  endureth 
unto  eternal  life,  reminds  them  of  the  manna  that  was 
given  to  their  fathers,  when  under  the  leadership  of  Moses, 
and  they  at  once  intimate  the  propriety  of  a  similar  bless- 
ing from  Jesus.  If  he  will  give  them,  by  miracle,  not  bar- 
ley bread  and  fishes  only,  but  the  food  of  angels,  they  may 
receive  him  as  the  Messiah,  greater  than  Moses. 

Christ  replied  deliberately,  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  you,"  claiming  that  the  manna  though  super- 
natural in  its  origin,  was  plainly  a  type  of  himself, 
who  was  the  genuine  bread  of  God,  who  both 
came  down  from  heaven  and  was  to  give  life  to  the 
hungry  world,  and  not  simply  to  the  starving  Is- 
raelites. "  It  was  not  Moses  that  gave  you  the 
bread  out  of  heaven,"  but  God.  That  bread,  how- 
ever, was  limited  in  amount,  and  circumscribed  in 
its  distribution,  and  perishable  in  its  nature,  and 
food  only  for  the  body.  It  was  hardly  worthy  to 
be  called  the  bread  of  heaven.  It  was  only  a 
type  of  what  was  to  come,  only  the  material 
shadow  of  the  spiritual  substance.  "  But  my 
Father  givcth  you  the  true  bread  out  of  heaven. 
For  the  bread  of  God  is  that  which  comcth  down 
out  of  heaven,  and  giveth  life  unto  the  world." 
The  Jews  saw  only  the  local  miracle  and  the  glory 
of  their  great  prophet.  Christ  saw  the  prophetic 
type  of  himself,  heavenly  in  origin,  life-giving  in 
its  properties,  and  adequate  for  a  famishing  world. 


2IO  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Geikie  has  the  following  instructive  paragraph 
on  the  manna  of  the  wilderness  as  a  type  of  Christ : 

The  miracle  of  the  manna  had  become  a  subject  of  the 
proudest  remembrances  and  fondest  legends  of  the  nation. 
"God,"  says  the  Talmud,  "made  manna  to  descend  for 
them,  in  which  were  all  manner  of  tastes.  Every  Israelite 
found  in  it  what  best  pleased  him.  The  young  tasted 
bread,  the  old  honey,  and  the  children  oil."  It  had 
become  a  fixed  belief  that  the  Messiah,  when  he  came, 
would  signalize  his  advent  by  a  repetition  of  this  stupen- 
dous miracle.  .  .  It  was  thus  only  an  expression  of  the 
public  feeling  of  the  day,  when  Jesus  was  asked  to  repeat 
the  descent  of  manna — the  greatest  of  the  miracles  of 
Moses.  .  .  But  Jesus,  at  all  times  resolute  in  withholding 
miraculous  action  for  any  personal  end,  had  not  thought  of 
satisfying  their  craving  for  wonders.  "Moses,  indeed," 
said  he,  "gave  you  manna,  but  it  was  not  the  true  Bread 
of  Heaven."  He  wished  to  draw  them  from  the  merely 
outward  miracle  to  that  far  higher  wonder  even  then 
enacting  before  their  eyes,  the  free  offer  of  the  true  Bread 
of  heaven,  in  the  offer  of  himself  as  their  Saviour. 

In  Psalm  89  we  find  promises  so  far-reaching 
and  grand,  that  it  is  impossible  to  restrict  them  to 
King  David  or  Solomon  his  son.  They  can  only 
be  fulfilled  in  the  character  and  dominion  of  great 
David's  greater  son  and  successor,  the  spiritual 
King  of  the  spiritual  Israel,  the  divine  Messiah. 
They  are  substantially  the  same  promises  that  were 
given  to  David  and  his  seed  in  the  second  book  of 
Samuel,  and  as  those  promises  look  forward  to  the 
universal  establishment  and  glory  of  the  kingdom 


THE    MKSSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  211 

of  Christ  for  their  perfect  fulfillment,  so  must  these. 
The  language  of  these  promises  in  history  and 
psalm  is  so  similar,  and  so  closely  resembles  the 
language  of  other  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, that  it  is  difficult  to  tell  exactly  from  which 
of  them  the  New  Testament  writers  quote. 

The  psalm  opens  with  these  impressive  words  : 
"  I will  sing  of  the  mercies  of  the  Lord  for  ever : 
with  my  month  will  I  make  known  thy  faithfulness 
to  all  generations.  For  I  have  said,  Mercy  shall  be 
built  up  for  ever :  thy  faithfulness  shalt  thou  establish 
in  the  very  heavens,  /have  made  a  covenant  with 
my  chosen,  I  have  sworn  unto  David,  my  servant, 
Thy  seed  will  I  establish  for  ever,  and  build  up  thy 
throne  to  all  generations."  These  words  are  suffi- 
cient to  prove  the  Messianic  import  of  the  psalm. 
David  was  God's  chosen  one.  It  was  his  seed,  i.  e., 
Christ,  that  was  to  be  established  forever,  and  his 
throne  that  was  to  be  built  up  through  all  gener- 
ations. We  are  reminded  of  the  Apostle  Paul's 
language,1  "Concerning  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord,  which  was  made  of  the  seed  of  David  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh,"  and  of  the  angel's  annunciation  to 
the  Virgin  Mary  :  "  And  the  Lord  God  shall  give 
unto  him  the  throne  of  his  father  David,  and  he 
shall  reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob  for  ever,  and 
of  his  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end." 

1  Rom.  I  :  3. 


212  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Later  in  this  psalm  we  find  such  expressions  as 
these  :  "  TJien  tliou  spake st  in  vision  to  thy  Holy 
One,  and  saidst,  I  have  laid  help  upon  one  that  is 
mighty  ;  I  have  exalted  one  chosen  out  of  the  people. 
I  have  found  David,  my  servant ;  with  my  holy  oil 
have  I  anointed  him :  with  whom  my  hand  shall  be 
established:  mine  arm  also  shall strengthen  him.  .  . 
And  in  my  name  shall  his  horn  be  exalted.  I  will 
set  Ids  hand  also  in  the  sea,  and  his  right  hand  in 
the  rivers  [showing  the  unlimited  extent  of  his  pos- 
sessions]. He  shall  cry  wito  me,  Thou  art  my  Father, 
my  God,  and  the  Rock  of  my  salvation.  Also  I 
will  make  him  my  firstborn,  higher  than  the  kings 
of  the  earth.  .  .  His  seed  also  will  I  make  to  endure 
for  ever,  and  his  throne  as  the  days  of  heaven." 
This  language  is  thoroughly  pervaded  with  the 
Christ-thought.  It  is  shot  through  and  through 
with  the  Messianic  idea. 

The  quotations  may  be  more  of  sentiment  than 
of  language,  but  the  language  is  not  wholly  want- 
ing in  the  Christian  Scriptures.  The  psalm  says, 
"  I  have  laid  help  on  one  that  is  mighty."  The 
Epistle  says,  "  He  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost 
all  that  come  unto  him."  The  psalm  says,  "With 
my  holy  oil  have  I  anointed  him."  The  Gospel 
says,  "  We  have  found  the  Messiah,  which  is,  being 
interpreted,  the  Anointed."  The  psalm  says,  "In 
my  name  shall  his  horn  be  exalted."  The  Gospel 
says,  "  And  hath  raised  up  a  horn  of  salvation  for 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  213 

us  in  the  house  of  his  servant  David."  This  psalm 
says,  "  I  will  set  his  hand  also  in  the  sea,  and  his 
right  hand  in  the  rivers."  Another  psalm  says  of 
the  Messiah,  "  He  shall  have  dominion  also  from 
sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river  unto  the  ends  of  the 
earth."  The  psalm  says,  "  He  shall  cry  unto  me, 
Thou  art  my  Father,  my  God."  The  Gospel  says, 
"  I  ascend  to  my  Father  and  to  your  Father,  to 
my  God  and  to  your  God."  The  psalm  says,  "  I 
will  make  him  my  firstborn."  One  Epistle  says, 
"  That  he  might  be  the  firstborn  among  many 
brethren,"  and  again  another  Epistle  says,  "Who 
is  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  the  firstborn  of 
every  creature."  The  psalm  says,  "  I  will  make 
him  higher  than  the  kings  of  the  earth."  The 
Gospel  says,  "  He  shall  be  great,  and  shall  be  called 
the  Son  of  the  Highest,"  and  the  Epistle  says, 
"Wherefore  God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and 
given  him  a  name  that  is  above  every  name,  that 
at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  of 
things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  the  earth,  and 
things  under  the  earth,  and  that  every  tongue 
should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord  to  the 
glory  of  God  the  Father."  The  psalm  says,  "His 
seed  also  will  I  make  to  endure  for  ever,  and  his 
throne  as  the  days  of  heaven."  The  Revelation 
says,  "  The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become 
the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ,  and 
he  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever." 


214  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Since  David  and  Solomon  are  both  acknowledged 
to  be  types  of  Christ,  and  in  view  of  the  extrava- 
gance of  such  language  when  applied  to  them,  and 
the  resemblance  of  thought  and  language  when 
applied  to  Christ,  the  Messianic  character  of  the 
psalm  is  clearly  apparent. 

In  Ps.  96  :  13  it  is  declared,  "He  shall  judge 
the  world  with  righteousness."  The  same  language 
is  used  in  Ps.  98  :  9.  Both  of  these  psalms  point 
forward  to  the  universal  and  blessed  reign  of  Christ, 
a  distinguishing  feature  of  which  will  be  that  all 
judgment  will  be  administered  in  absolute  equity. 
This  will  exalt  the  Messianic  dispensation,  when  its 
fullness  shall  have  been  brought  in,  above  all 
human  administration  of  authority  and  justice. 
Now,  everywhere  in  the  New  Testament  Christ  is 
held  up  in  his  judicial  character  and  office.  He 
himself  said,1  "  For  the  Father  judgeth  no  man, 
but  hath  committed  all  judgment  unto  the  Son." 
And  in  harmony  with  this  claim  of  Christ,  the 
Apostle  Paul,  in  his  famous  discourse  on  Mars  Hill, 
in  that  city  of  Grecian  culture  and  grossest  idola- 
try, used  the  very  language  of  the  psalm,  and 
determined  its  Messianic  application,  when  he  said  : 
"  Because  he  hath  appointed  a  day,  in  the  which 
he  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness  by  that 
man   whom    he   hath   ordained ;   whereof  he   hath 

1  John  5  :  22. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  215 

given  assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  he  hath  raised 
him  from  the  dead." 

In  Ps.  97  :  7  is  found  the  following  sentence  : 
"  Worship  him,  all  ye  gods."  This  is  a  dramatic 
appeal  evidently  to  all  heathen  idols  to  bow  down 
and  worship  at  the  feet  of  Jehovah,  or  as  this  psalm 
is  obviously  Messianic  in  its  anticipativc  expres- 
sions, at  the  feet  of  Messiah.  The  Septuagint  ver- 
sion renders  this  sentence,  "  Worship  him,  all  ye 
his  angels."  Some  interpreters  have  supposed  that 
this  was  the  original  of  Heb.  1:6:  "And  again, 
when  he  bringeth  in  the  first-begotten  into  the 
world,  he  saith,  And  let  all  the  angels  of  God  wor- 
ship him."  But  the  weight  of  authority  is  in  favor 
of  finding  the  original  in  the  Septuagint  rendering 
of  Dcut.  32  :  43,  so  that  the  passage  does  not  come 
under  our  consideration. 

In  Ps.  102  there  is  a  sublime  declaration  of  the 
eternity  and  immutability  of  God  (ver.  25-27)  :  "  Of 
old  hast  thou  laid  the  foundation  of  the  earth  :  and 
the  heavens  are  the  work  of  thy  hands.  They  shall 
perish,  but  thou  shall  endure  :  yea,  all  of  them  shall 
wax  old  like  a  garment ;  as  a  vesture  shall  thou 
change  them,  and  they  shall  he  changed :  But  thou 
art  the  same,  and  thy  years  shall  have  no  end." 
These  words  are  quoted  in  Heb.  1  :  10—12,  as  di- 
rectly applicable  to  Christ.  The  writer  of  the 
Epistle  is  proving  the  infinite  superiority  of  Christ 
to  angelic  beings,  and  his  oneness  with  God.      He 


2l6  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

calls  him  "  the  brightness  of  God's  glory,  and  the 
express  image  of  his  person."  He  ascribes  to  him 
creative  power,  and  the  almighty  sustaining  energy 
by  which  all  things  are  upheld.  Having  ascribed 
to  him  these  attributes  of  Deity,  he  completes  the 
expression  of  his  faith  in  the  full  divinity  of  Christ 
by  declaring  his  eternal  sovereignty  and  the  un- 
changeableness  of  his  Being  :  "Thy  throne,  O  God, 
is  for  ever  and  ever,"  "Thou  art  the  same,  and  thy 
years  shall  not  fail."  He  quotes  in  the  process  of 
his  argument  in  this  chapter  from  no  less  than  six 
psalms,  with  the  fullest  confidence  in  their  Messianic 
import  and  in  the  validity  of  his  reasoning,  and  in 
its  force  in  the  minds  of  those  to  whom  he  wrote. 
Of  this  quotation  Kuenen  says  :  "  It  is  difficult  to 
say  what  has  led  the  writer  to  this  interpretation." 
Not  at  all.  The  writer  having  connected  Christ 
with  the  whole  universe  of  worlds  as  their  almighty 
Creator  and  Upholder,  it  was  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world  for  him  to  contrast  now  their 
perishableness  and  transient  nature  with  the  eter- 
nity and  immutability  of  him  who  made  them  all. 
He  chose  his  quotation  from  a  psalm  that  is  in 
other  parts  obviously  Messianic,  and  to  him  there 
was  no  distinction  between  the  Messiah  of  the  New 
Testament  and  Jehovah  of  the  Old,  so  that  lan- 
guage originally  spoken  of  Jehovah  was  equally  ap- 
plicable to  Christ.  He  accepted  Christ's  own  words 
as  to  his  nature,  "I  and  my  Father  are  one." 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    TIIK    PSALMS  217 

Dr.  Franklin  Johnson  has  well  said  : 

A  glance  at  the  psalm  itself  will  show  why  it  is  thus  ap- 
plied, for  it  is  distinctively  Messianic  in  those  parts  which 
refer  to  the  future  action  of  God  in  saving  men.  .  .  The 
psalm  was  probably  written  during  the  Babylonian  captiv- 
ity, or  soon  after  it,  and  the  predictions  of  future  deliver- 
ance refer  primarily  to  the  return  of  the  nation  from  exile, 
or  the  escape  from  the  distress  immediately  succeeding  it. 
But  the  view  of  the  prophet  sweeps  far  beyond  this  period, 
and  his  expressions  depict  a  future  more  glorious  than  the 
restoration  of  the  tribes  to  their  own  land,  or  than  the  high- 
est prosperity  which  they  attained  afterward.  "The  na- 
tions," the  Gentiles,  are  to  "  fear  the  name  of  Jehovah,  and 
the  kings  of  the  earth  his  glory."  "The  peoples,"  the 
Gentiles  again,  are  to  "be  gathered  together,  and  the  king- 
doms to  serve  Jehovah."  Even  after  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  have  passed  away,  the  children  of  God  "shall  con- 
tinue, and  their  seed  shall  be  established."  The  psalm, 
thus,  is  typical,  looking  to  the  return  of  national  prosperity, 
and  making  this  the  foreshadowing  of  the  kingdom  of  the 
Messiah,  in  its  universal  extent  and  its  eternal  duration, 
Jehovah  should  accomplish  all  this,  the  Jehovah  who  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  earth,  who  formed  the  heavens  with 
his  hands,  who  shall  remove  all  these  his  works,  and  who 
shall  endure  forever  after  they  are  destroyed.  The  psalmist 
looked  forward  to  what  Jehovah  would  do,  the  writer  to  the 
Hebrews  to  what  he  had  done  ;  the  one  beheld  Jehovah,  the 
other  Christ  ;  they  are  therefore  essentially  one  and  the 
same  Being,  according  to  the  uniform  teaching  of  the  New 
Testament. 

In  Ps.  1 1 8  :  22,  23  is  found  a  statement  which  is 
familiar  to  all  readers  of  the  New  Testament  :  "  The 
stone  which  the  builders  refused  is  become  the  head 


2l8  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

stone  of  the  corner.  This  is  the  Lord" 's  doing- ;  it  is 
marvelous  in  onr  ej/es."  The  occasion  of  this  psalm 
has  been  variously  understood,  Ewald,  Hengsten- 
berg,  Delitzsch,  and  Stier  each  suggesting  a  differ- 
ent one.  It  was  undoubtedly  written  for  some 
great  festival,  and  in  commemoration  of  some  great 
event.  It  was  one  of  the  series  of  psalms  sung  at 
the  Passover.  It  recounts  the  restoration  of  God's 
people  after  a  period  of  humiliation  and  apparent 
rejection.  The  allusion  to  the  rejected  stone,  and 
its  recovery  and  exaltation  to  the  place  of  honor, 
may  have  been  a  proverb.  If  the  psalm  was  writ- 
ten after  the  exile,  and  found  its  occasion  in  the 
building  of  the  second  temple,  the  proverb  found 
an  application  in  the  rehabilitation  of  the  Jews  by 
the  favor  of  God  after  they  had  been  despised  by 
the  nations.  Cheyne  says  :  "An  old  proverb  in  a 
new  light.  The  stone  means  Israel,  which  contrary 
to  all  human  probability  had  again  become  promi- 
nent in  the  complex  organization  of  peoples.  The 
builders  are  non-Israelites,  who  would  fain  have 
arranged  the  world  to  their  liking."  He  makes  no 
reference  to  Christ's  use  of  the  proverb,  and  sees  in 
it  no  Messianic  application. 

The  psalm  to  the  Jews  had  its  Messianic  features, 
as  we  shall  soon  see,  and  Christ  found  in  this  prov- 
erb a  reference  and  application  to  himself.1     He 

1  Matt.  21  :  42  ;  Mark  12  :  10,  11  ;  Luke  20  :  17. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    TSALMS  219 

turned  it  against  the  Jewish  nation  of  his  day,  as  a 
prophetic  intimation  of  their  treatment  of  him,  and 
in  spite  of  that,  of  his  exaltation  to  be  a  Prince  and 
a  Saviour,  the  corner-stone  of  God's  spiritual  tem- 
ple, of  the  true  Israel  who  should  be  saved.  Peter 
in  his  brave  defense  before  the  hostile  authorities 
of  Jerusalem,  being  "filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost," 
it  is  said  ; 2  and  again  in  his  First  Epistle,3  under 
the  inspiration  of  the  same  divine  Spirit,  makes  use 
of  the  Saviour's  interpretation  and  personal  appli- 
cation of  the  psalmist's  words,  and  distinctly  asserts 
that  they  were  a  prophecy  of  the  coming  Messiah, 
of  the  treatment  which  he  should  receive  at  the 
hands  of  the  Jews,  and  of  his  full  endorsement  by 
God  and  enthronement  as  the  world's  only  Re- 
deemer. The  Jews  might  reject  him  and  repudiate 
his  Messianic  claims  ;  indeed,  it  was  prcannounced 
that  they  would  do  so  ;  but  notwithstanding,  there 
was  "  none  other  name  under  heaven  given  among 
men  whereby  we  must  be  saved."  The  stone 
might  be  disallowed  by  those  who  professed  to  be 
the  builders  of  true  religion  in  the  world  ;  but  nev- 
ertheless it  was  the  "  elect "  stone  of  God,  laid  in  Zion 
by  his  own  hand,  and  "  precious  "  alike  to  him  and 
to  all  who  through  faith  should  build  upon  it. 

Geikie   unfolds  the  significance  of  the  proverb 
and  its  application  as  follows  : 

1  Acts  4:11.  J  2  :  6,  7. 


2  20  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

The  meaning  was  clear.  The  corner-stone  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  of  which  those  in  his  presence  claimed  to  be 
the  chief  men,  was,  in  their  own  mode  of  speech,  only  a 
figurative  name  for  the  Messiah,  on  whom  its  existence  and 
completion  depended,  as  a  building  depends  on  its  founda- 
tion and  support.  The  psalm  quoted  had  been  sung,  it  is 
believed,  by  Israel  on  the  first  feast  of  Tabernacles  after 
the  return  from  captivity.  Its  historical  reference  was 
primarily  to  the  Jewish  nation — rejected  by  the  heathen, 
but  chosen  again  by  God  as  the  foundation  of  his  earthly 
kingdom  ;  but  in  a  higher  spiritual  sense,  the  rabbis  them- 
selves understood  it  of  the  Messiah,  and  thus  there  could 
be  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  Jew,  that  when  now  ap- 
plied by  Christ  to  himself,  it  was  a  direct  claim  of  Messianic 
dignity. 

Christ  adds,  in  order  to  emphasize  the  serious 
consequences  of  unbelief  and  rejection  of  him,  of 
which  some  men  seem  to  think  so  little,  "Whoso- 
ever shall  fall  on  this  stone  shall  be  broken  :  but 
on  whomsoever  it  shall  fall,  it  will  grind  him  to 
powder."  Reference  may  have  been  had  to  the 
language  of  Isa.  8  :  14,  which  is  certainly  quoted 
by  Peter  in  the  same  connection,1  where  he  calls  it 
"a  stone  of  stumbling  and  a  rock  of  offence."  The 
corner-stone  which  has  been  cast  aside,  may  be  in 
the  way,  and  men  may  stumble  over  it  to  their  serious 
injury,  or  in  casting  it  aside  men  may  pull  it  over 
upon  themselves,  and  it  fall  upon  them  with  crush- 
ing weight.      In  either  case  the   result  is  disastrous. 

Doctor  Broadus  says  upon  this  passage : 

1 1  Peter  2  :  8. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  221 

He  who  in  unbelief  finds  this  stone  an  obstacle,  smites 
against  it  and  falls,  will  not  only  be  bruised  by  the  fall, 
but  broken  in  pieces.  If  he  stumbles  over  Jesus  as  unfit 
to  be  a  Saviour,  all  his  religious  hopes  will  be  utterly 
destroyed.  In  the  second  clause  the  image  is  some- 
what changed.  The  stone  is  here  conceived  not  as  a 
foundation  stone,  but  as  placed  higher  up  in  the  corner, 
perhaps  at  the  top,  and  some  one  tries  to  pull  it  down  from 
its  place  ;  but  it  falls  upon  him,  and  scatters  him  like  a 
puff  of  dust.  [There  is  no  necessity  of  suggesting  the 
slightest  change  of  the  figure.  Men  are  not  infrequently 
crushed  in  handling  a  foundation  stone.]  Jesus  came  to  be 
the  Messiah  ;  the  Jews  reject  him,  and  thereby  utterly  lose 
the  Messianic  felicity.  He  is  notwithstanding  placed  by 
God  as  the  corner-stone  of  salvation  ;  the  Jews  try  to  pull 
him  down,  to  defeat  the  divine  plan  by  putting  him  to 
death,  but  in  falling  he  will  scatter  like  chaff  their  schemes 
and  themselves.  They  will  have  not  only  the  loss  which 
comes  from  stumbling  at  him,  but  the  terrible  destruction 
which  comes  from  pulling  him  down  on  their  heads  ;  while 
he,  divinely  replaced,  will  forever  remain  the  corner-stone 
of  human  salvation. 

Such  is  the  Messianic  interpretation  of  the  pas- 
sage in  the  psalm  as  given  by  the  Messiah  him- 
self and  his  apostles,  and  such  is  the  solemn  warn- 
ing, to  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews,  against  the  willful 
rejection  of  Jesus  Christ. 

In  ver.  26  of  this  psalm  we  read,  "Blessed  be  he 
that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lardy  These  words 
are  quoted  with  slightly  varying  additions  by  each 
of  the   four  evangelists.1     They  appear  in   the  ac- 

1  Matt.  21  :  9  ;   Mark  II  :  9  ;   Luke  19:38;  John  12  :  13. 


222  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

counts  of  the  public  entry  of  Christ  into  Jerusalem, 
the  Sunday  before  his  crucifixion.  It  was  the  one 
occasion  in  his  earthly  life  when  our  Lord  received 
something  of  the  recognition  and  honor  which 
belonged  to  him.  He  whose  weary  feet  had 
often  traversed  in  all  humility  the  rough  roads  of 
Judea,  now  for  once  came  riding  with  some  little 
appearance  of  state  and  dignity,  in  fulfillment  of 
a  distinct  prophetic  utterance.1  The  multitude 
moved  by  some  mysterious  impulse,  crowded  upon 
him,  and  followed  after  in  lengthening  procession. 
Their  hearts  were  stirred  to  unwonted  enthusiasm. 
They  tore  the  branches  from  the  trees  and  scat- 
tered them  in  the  way.  They  carpeted  the  road 
with  the  clothing  hastily  stripped  from  their 
shoulders.  The  thought  swelled  within  them  that 
the  national  hope  was  about  to  be  realized,  that  the 
faith  which  had  been  kept  alive  for  centuries  had 
come  to  its  fulfillment  and  blessed  reward.  They 
could  no  longer  repress  their  emotions.  They 
filled  the  air  with  their  shouts  and  acclamations  of 
praise.  One  voice  expressed  the  thought,  and  all 
tongues  were  unloosed,  and  from  end  to  end  of 
the  procession  the  cry  went  up,  "  Hosanna  to  the 
Son  of  David  !  Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  !  Hosanna  in  the  highest!" 
Edersheim,  in  "The  Life  and  Times  of  Jesus  the 


1  Matt.  21  :  4,  5  and  Zech.  9  :  9. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  223 

Messiah,"  has  given  a  very  graphic  description  of 
this  incident.      He  says  : 

We  can  imagine  it  all,  how  the  fire  would  leap  from  heart 
to  heart.  So  he  was  the  promised  Son  of  David — and  the 
kingdom  was  at  hand  !  It  may  have  been  just  as  the  pre- 
cise point  of  the  road  was  reached  when  "the  city  of  Da- 
vid" first  suddenly  emerges  into  view,  "at  the  descent  of 
the  mount  of  Olives,"  "that  the  whole  multitude  of  the 
disciples  began  to  rejoice  and  praise  God  with  a  loud  voice 
for  all  the  mighty  works  that  they  had  seen."  As  the 
burning  words  of  joy  and  praise,  the  record  of  what  they 
had  seen,  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  they  caught 
their  first  sight  of  "the  city  of  David,"  adorned  as  a  bride 
to  welcome  her  King,  Davidic  praise  to  David's  Greater 
Son  wakened  the  echoes  of  old  Davidic  psalms  in  the  morn- 
ing light  of  their  fulfillment. 

It  was  a  thrilling  and  significant  scene  in  the 
life  of  Christ,  and  must  have  produced  a  profound 
impression  upon  the  multitude,  and  upon  Christ 
himself,  who  saw  as  the  multitude  did  not,  but  as 
we  now  know,  that  his  death  was  only  five  days 
distant,  that  his  triumphal  ride  was  toward  his  cru- 
cifixion and  shame.  The  scene  has  been  pictured 
for  us  in  the  immortal  lines  of  Milman's  impressive 
hymn  : 

Ride  on  !  ride  on  in  majesty  ! 

Hark  !  all  the  tribes  Hosanna  cry  ! 

Thine  humble  beast  pursues  his  road, 

With  palms  and  scattered  garments  strewed. 

Ride  on  !  ride  on  in  majesty  ! 
In  lowly  pomp  ride  on  to  die  ! 


224  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

O  Christ,  thy  triumphs  now  begin 
O'  er  captive  death  and  conquered  sin. 

Ride  on  !  ride  on  in  majesty  ! 
The  winged  squadrons  of  the  sky 
Look  down  with  sad  and  wondering  eyes 
To  see  the  approaching  sacrifice. 

Ride  on  !  ride  on  in  majesty  ! 
The  last  and  fiercest  strife  is  nigh  ; 
The  Father  on  his  sapphire  throne 
Expects  his  own  anointed  Son. 

Ride  on  !  ride  on  in  majesty  ! 
In  lowly  pomp  ride  on  to  die  ! 
Bow  thy  meek  head  to  mortal  pain  ! 
Then  take,  O  God,  thy  power  and  reign. 

But  what  gave  to  the  scene  its  peculiar  signifi- 
cance? It  was  the  words  that  burst  from  the  lips 
of  the  multitude,  the  quotation  from  their  familiar 
psalm,  which  had  always  been  applied  to  their 
coming  King  Messiah.  They  had  found  the  living 
application  for  which  they  had  impatiently  waited. 
The  divine  prophecy  had  come  to  its  fulfillment. 
It  was  an  open  acknowledgment  of  the  Messianic 
character  of  Jesus.  He  was  David's  promised  Son 
and  Lord,  in  whom  the  expectations  of  the  nation 
were  centered,  clothed  with  divine  authority  to  bring 
in  his  glorious  reign,  and  as  they  believed,  to  re- 
establish his  throne  forever.  The  word  "hosanna" 
meant  originally,  "Save,  we  beseech  thee,"  and 
was   a   contraction   of  the    previous   verse   of  the 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  225 

psalm  (ver.  25).  To  the  Jews  who  uttered  these 
words,  and  to  the  Jews  who  heard  them,  there 
could  have  been  but  one  meaning,  viz,  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  prophetic  character  of  the  words 
of  the  psalm,  and  a  distinct  recognition  of  their 
reference  to  the  lowly  man  riding  before  them. 

Godet  interprets  this  remarkable  scene  in  the 
following  words : 

The  cries  of  the  multitude  leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  mean- 
ing of  this  demonstration  ;  it  was,  indeed,  the  Messiah 
whom  the  people  welcomed  and  saluted  in  the  person  of 
Jesus.  The  acclamations  reported  by  St.  John  12  :  13, 
and  for  which  equivalents  are  given  by  the  synoptists,  are 
taken  from  Psalm  118,  especially  ver.  25,  26.  Numerous 
rabbinic  quotations  prove  this  psalm  to  have  been  regarded 
as  Messianic.  Every  Israelite  knew  these  words  by  heart  ; 
they  were  sung  at  the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  in  the  proces- 
sion made  round  the  altar,  and  at  the  Passover,  after  the 
singing  of  the  great  Hallel,  Ps.  113-118,  at  the  close  of 
the  repast.  Hosanna  (save,  I  beseech  thee)  is  a  prayer  ad- 
dressed to  God  by  the  theocratic  people  on  behalf  of  its 
King  Messiah  ;  it  is,  if  we  may  venture  so  to  speak,  the 
Israelite  God  save  the  King. 

Ellicott  in  his  discussion  of  this  incident  says  in 
conclusion  : 

Such  was  the  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem  ;  such  the 
most  striking  event,  considered  with  reference  to  the  na- 
tion, on  which  we  have  as  yet  meditated.  It  was  no  less 
than  a  public  recognition  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  the  long- 
looked-for  Messiah,  the  long  and  passionately  expected 
theocratic  King. 

P 


226  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

This  accounts  for  the  indignation  of  the  Pharisees 
who  stood  by.  To  them  the  use  of  those  sacred 
words  by  the  disciples,  and  their  application  to 
Jesus  was  nothing  less  than  blasphemy,  as  they 
thought  the  Master  himself  would  acknowledge, 
and  so  they  said,  "  Master,  rebuke  thy  disciples." 
But  Jesus,  instead  of  repudiating  the  interpretation 
and  conduct  of  the  disciples,  approved  and  ac- 
cepted it  in  the  most  emphatic  and  unmistakable 
manner,  saying  unto  those  blind  objectors,  "  I  tell 
you  that,  if  these  should  hold  their  peace,"  if  they 
should  fail  to  see  in  me  your  foretold  Messiah,  and 
the  fulfillment  of  these  words  which  they  have 
spoken,  even  inanimate  nature  would  arouse  itself 
to  testify  in  my  behalf,  "  the  stones  would  imme- 
diately cry  out,"  as  if  in  forced  and  intelligent  ac- 
knowledgment of  my  divine  character  and  claims. 

Neander,  recognizing  the  unmistakable  signifi- 
cance and  full  force  of  this  Messianic  welcome  to 
Christ,  and  the  nature  of  the  rebuke  administered 
to  those  who  would  have  forbidden  it,  says  : 

An  event  had  occurred,  so  lofty  and  so  pregnant  with  the 
best  interests  of  mankind,  that  it  might  rouse  even  the  dull- 
est to  rejoice.  In  the  mouth  of  any  other,  even  the  great- 
est of  men,  these  words  (as  to  the  spontaneous  testimony  of 
the  stones)  would  have  been  an  unjustifiable  self-exaltation  ; 
uttered  by  him,  they  show  the  weighty  import  which  he 
gave  to  his  manifestation.  Christ's  conduct  in  this  respect, 
moreover,  shows  that  such  an  entry  into  Jerusalem  formed 
part  of  his  plan. 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  22J 

A  little  later,  probably  the  next  day,  according 
to  Matthew's  record,1  Christ  appeared  in  the  tem- 
ple, and  gave  fresh  proof  of  his  Messiahship  by 
casting  out  the  profane  traffickers,  and  vindicating 
the  honor  of  his  Father's  house,  and  performing 
anew  his  mighty  miracles.  Again,  the  children 
took  up  the  Messianic  greeting,  and  again  the 
anger  of  the  priests  and  scribes  was  kindled  against 
him,  and  they  cried  out  indignantly,  '*  Hearest 
thou  what  these  say?  "  And  again  Christ  accepted 
the  ascription  of  Messianic  honor  as  rightfully  be- 
longing to  him,  and  claimed  the  fulfillment  of  an- 
other prophetic  utterance,  contained  in  their  Holy 
Scriptures,2  in  which  the  simple  minds  of  children 
are  made  to  recognize  his  divine  glory,  and  their 
lisping  tongues  to  proclaim  his  praise,  to  the  shame 
of  the  blind  prejudice  and  proud  godlessness  of 
his  rejecters.  On  this  fresh  outburst  of  praise  on 
the  one  hand,  and  enmity  on  the  other,  Geikie  re- 
marks : 

His  bold  appearance  in  the  temple  itself  especially  filled 
the  priestly  dignitaries  and  rabbis  with  indignation,  all  the 
deeper  because  they  dared  not  arrest  him  for  fear  of  the 
crowds,  even  when  now  in  their  very  hand.  That  the 
children  should  hail  him  as  the  Messiah,  also  enraged 
them.  "Hearest  thou  not  what  these  say?"  asked  some 
of  them.  But  instead  of  disavowing  the  supreme  honor 
ascribed    to    him,    he  only  replied   that  he  did.      "But," 

1  Matt.  21  :  12-16.  '  Ps.  8  :  2. 


228  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

added  he,  "have  ye  never  read  in  your  Scriptures,  Out  of 
the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings  thou  (Jehovah)  hast  per- 
fected praise,  that  thou  mightest  put  to  shame  thine  ene- 
mies, and  silence  thy  foes,  and  those  who  rage  against 
thee  ? ' ' 

Subsequently  in  Christ's  severe  arraignment  of 
Jerusalem  and  heart-broken  lament  over  its  doom, 
he  repeated  the  application  of  this  psalm-prophecy 
to  himself,  saying:1  "For  I  say  unto  you,  ye  shall 
not  see  me  henceforth,  till  ye  shall  say,  Blessed  is 
he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  ac- 
knowledging me  to  be  the  Messiah,  as  my  disciples 
and  the  children  of  Jerusalem  have  already  done. 
After  his  resurrection  they  saw  him  no  more  ;  and 
the  veil  is  still  upon  their  faces,  and  upon  the  faces 
of  all  persons  of  our  time  throughout  the  Christian 
world,  who  see  not  him  upon  whom  the  abundant 
light  of  Old  Testament  prophecy,  shining  from  so 
many  books,  converges  in  convincing  splendor,  and 
who  do  not  reverently,  believingly,  rejoicingly  join 
in  the  old  acclamation  :  "  Hosanna  to  the  son  of 
David  and  the  Son  of  God.  Blessed  is  he  that 
cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Hosanna  in  the 
highest ! " 

1  Matt.  23  :  39. 


CHAPTER  X 
CONCLUSION 


We  have  now  passed  in  review  the 
Conclusion  psalms  which  are  denominated  Mes- 
sianic, having  examined  particularly  those  entire 
psalms  which  are  quoted  at  length  in  the  New 
Testament  as  referring  to  Christ,  whatever  local  ap- 
plication they  may  have  had,  having  analyzed  other 
specimen  psalms  which,  though  not  quoted  by  New 
Testament  writers,  are  nevertheless  pervaded  with 
the  Messianic  spirit  and  rich  with  the  Messianic 
hope  ;  and  having  critically  studied  all  of  those 
separate  verses  within  the  limits  of  the  sacred  He- 
brew Psalter,  which  the  Christian  Scriptures  have 
declared  to  be  prophetic  utterances  of  the  coming, 
the  character,  and  the  mission  of  the  Son  of  God. 
All  these  numerous  passages  have  set  before  us 
with  the  utmost  clearness,  and  sometimes  with  re- 
markable minuteness,  the  person,  the  divine  char- 
acter, the  human  descent,  the  humiliation  and 
sufferings,  the  exaltation  and  glory,  the  priestly 
service  and  the  royal  dignity,  of  the  Messiah,  and 
also  the  world-wide  triumph  and  blessedness  of  his 
kingdom.  There  is  hardly  a  feature  of  the  New 
Testament  picture  of  Christ  as  Prophet,  Priest,  and 
Divine   King,  and   of  his   redemptive  work  for  the 

231 


232  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

human  race,  which  was  not  pre-announced  in  this 
book  of  religious  hymns.  A  systematic  treatise 
might  almost  be  compiled  from  these  sublime  songs. 

Yet  it  should  be  remembered  that  these  sacred 
songs  contain  but  a  small  part  of  the  Messianic 
prophecies.  They  abound  also  in  other  portions  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  are  equally  clear  in  their 
import,  and  are  in  like  manner  quoted  by  Christ 
and  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  as  applicable 
to  our  Lord.  In  the  aggregate  they  number  not 
less  than  three  hundred. 

If  it  be  said  that  it  was  the  Messianic  idea  which 
prevailed  in  the  time  of  Christ  that  determined  this 
Messianic  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures, it  may  be  replied  that  the  Messianic  idea 
was  as  old  as  the  Hebrew  race,  that  it  prevailed 
when  the  Jewish  Scriptures  were  written,  all  along 
the  centuries  of  their  composition,  having  been 
created,  if  we  may  accept  the  statements  of  the 
Scriptures,  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  and  having 
been  kept  alive  and  powerful  by  the  inspired 
Scriptures  of  their  faith.  So  that  instead  of  its 
being  a  new  and  later  idea  interpreting  itself  into 
the  old  records,  it  was  the  old  records  that  gave 
reality  and  vividness  and  an  indestructible  vitality 
to  the  Messianic  idea. 

Rev.  Stanley  Leathes,  speaking  of  the  early  origin 
and  permanence  of  the  Messianic  idea  among  the 
Jewish  nation,  says  : 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  233 

It  may,  however,  be  asserted  that  this  characteristic  of 
the  Jewish  literature  is  not  the  cause  but  the  effect  of  the 
inborn  consciousness  of  the  nation.  And  we  readily  grant 
it.  The  literature  itself  implies  no  less,  being,  as  it  is,  in  a 
great  degree  a  record  of  the  manner  in  which  that  conscious- 
ness arose.  .  .  What  I  am  anxious  to  maintain,  however,  is 
just  this,  that  for  my  argument  it  matters  not  whether  the 
writings  cherished  the  consciousness  or  the  consciousness 
produced  the  writings,  the  fact  remains  substantially  the 
same,  that  in  these  writings  there  is  to  be  discovered,  upon 
the  testimony  of  the  nation  who  preserved  them,  and  upon 
the  authority  of  our  Lord  and  his  apostles,  a  mass  of  recorded 
history,  teaching,  and  prophecy,  which  has  direct  reference 
to  a  Messiah. 

Much  has  been  written,  and  truthfully,  with  ref- 
erence to  the  hopes  and  longings  which  pervaded 
the  ancient  world,  "the  prophetic  utterances,  an- 
nouncing better  times  and  a  coming  deliverance." 
There  was  a  providential  preparation  of  the  nations 
for  Christ,  the  Messiah,  outside  of  the  Jewish  nation. 
These  "  prophetic  utterances  "  of  the  heathen  world 
lack  the  clearness,  the  positiveness,  the  divine  au- 
thentication, and  the  multiplicity  of  those  contained 
in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  ;  but  they  cannot  be  ig- 
nored in  estimating  the  reality  and  the  value  of  the 
Jewish  predictions.  Among  the  Chinese,  the  In- 
dians, and  the  Persians  they  were  not  wanting. 
They  take  on  a  remarkable  definitcness  and  per- 
sonality among  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans. 
Plato's  remarkable  connection  of  the  coming  re- 
demption  with   a  suffering   righteous   man    is  well 


234  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

known,  and  also  the  significant  prophecy  which  has 
made  the  fourth  eclogue  of  Virgil  famous.  But  in 
the  words  of  Luthardt  :  "It  was  not  only  by  the 
words  of  individuals  that  such  yearnings  were  ex- 
pressed. A  tone  of  prophecy,  a  feature  of  yearn- 
ing, a  presentiment  of  truth,  pervades  all  heathen- 
ism." Giving  due  weight  to  this  expectant  condi- 
tion of  the  world,  the  same  author  ascribes  to  the 
Jewish  nation  a  peculiar  pre-eminence,  as  a  people 
chosen  by  God  to  receive  and  make  known  his  pur- 
pose of  redemption  for  mankind,  and  its  method 
through  a  personal  Messiah  : 

Israel  was  the  nation  of  hope.  Ancient  prophecies  of  a 
redemption  and  a  Redeemer  to  come,  existed  among  this 
people,  and  ever  kept  their  view  directed  to  the  future. 
From  the  remotest  ages  men  had  been  acquainted  with  a 
prophetic  promise  proceeding  from  the  mouth  of  God — 
the  prophecy  of  the  woman's  seed,  which  was  to  bruise 
the  serpent's  head.  The  final  victory  of  man  over  the 
power  of  evil  upon  earth,  through  a  son  of  man,  was 
promised  by  this  saying,  which  pointed  to  the  obscure 
future.  All  subsequent  prophecies  were  in  substance  but 
further  developments  of  this  primitive  one.  .  .  These  as- 
sumed a  form  ever-increasingly  definite,  while  their  fulfill- 
ment was  confined  to  an  ever-narrowing  circle — to  the  seed 
of  Abraham,  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  house  of  David.  The 
Blessing  of  the  nations,  the  warlike  Hero,  the  King  whose 
dominion  was  to  be  victorious  and  peaceable,  is  their  sub- 
ject. .  .  This  future  was  to  be  introduced  by  a  new  and 
great  revelation  of  Jehovah,  the  bearer  of  which  was  as  the 
end  of  preceding  history,  to  close  up  prophecy  in  himself, 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  235 

and  possess  the  fullness  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  be  the  true 
High  Priest,  and  the  true  and  final  King,  who  was  also  to 
attain  to  glory  through  sufferings,  and  to  bring  upon  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  the  happy,  glorious,  and  peaceful  gov- 
ernment of  God.  This  is  the  one  great  theme  of  all  the 
prophecies. 

A  hope  that  had  been  kindled  by  God,  according 
to  their  accepted  tradition,  at  the  very  beginning 
of  human  history,  when  God  said,1  "The  seed  of  the 
woman  shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head,"  though  often 
disappointed,  and  sometimes  undoubtedly  assuming 
a  false  shape,  as  it  did  in  the  minds  of  many  at  the 
time  of  Christ's  advent,  had  been  constantly  fostered 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  through  many  centuries,  had 
survived  exile  and  bondage  and  weary  wanderings, 
to  say  nothing  of  spiritual  degeneracy  and  empty 
formalism,  and  had  found  expression  in  all  their 
sacred  literature,  until  at  last  in  the  fullness  of  time 
there  were  devout  men,  like  aged  Simeon,  to  whom, 
it  is  significantly  said,  "  it  was  revealed  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  that  he  should  not  see  death  until  he  had 
seen  the  Lord's  Christ,"  who  took  the  living  divine 
Fulfillment  in  his  arms  and  cried  with  supreme  and 
blessed  satisfaction,  "  Lord,  now  lettcst  thou  thy 
servant  depart  in  peace,  according  to  thy  word,  for 
mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation." 

To  the  objection  that  the  Messianic  hope  was  of 
late  origin,  and  that  it  sought  to  buttress  itself  by  a 

1  Gen.  3  :  15. 


236  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

new  interpretation  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  a  con- 
vincing reply  is  made  by  Edersheim  in  his  "  Proph- 
ecy and  History  in  Relation  to  the  Messiah."      He 

says  : 

If  the  Messianic  hope  had  sprung  up  during  or  immedi- 
ately after  the  exile,  we  should  scarcely  have  expected  it  to 
cluster  round  the  house  of  David,  nor  to  center  in  the  "Son 
of  David."  For  nothing  is  more  marked  than  the  deca- 
dence, and  almost  disappearance,  of  the  house  of  David 
in  that  period.  A  national  hope  of  this  kind  could  scarcely 
have  sprung  up,  when  the  royalty  of  David  was  not  only 
matter  of  the  past,  but  when  its  restoration  was  compara- 
tively so  little  thought  of,  or  desired,  that  the  descendants  of 
the  Davidic  house  seem  in  great  measure  to  have  become 
lost  in  the  mass  of  the  people.  And  the  argument  becomes 
all  the  stronger  as  we  notice  how,  with  the  lapse  of  time,  the 
Davidic  line  became  increasingly  an  historical  remembrance 
or  a  theological  idea  rather  than  a  present  power  or  reality. 
Throughout  the  Old  Testament  Davidic  descent  is  always 
the  most  prominent  in  all  Messianic  pictures,  while  in  later 
writings  it  recedes  into  the  background  as  something  in  the 
long  past  which  must  be  brought  forth  anew.  In  this  respect, 
also,  it  is  characteristic  that  the  name,  "Son  of  David," 
was  the  most  distinctive  title  claimed  by  and  given  to  Jesus, 
while  in  the  case  of  all  spurious  Messianic  movements  this 
occupied  only  a  subordinate,  if  any,  place. 

As  has  been  already  intimated,  these  ancient 
seers,  who  "spoke  as  they  were  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,"  did  not  always  comprehend  the  full 
import  of  their  utterances.  They  were  God's 
mouthpieces.     Their  words  had  a  local  and  intelli- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  237 

gible  reference,  and  then  swept  far  down  through 
the  centuries  to  some  vaster  fulfillment,  which  God, 
to  whom  one  day  is  as  a  thousand  years,  clearly 
foresaw,  but  to  which  their  vision  did  not  always 
extend.  There  have  been  unwilling  prophets  like 
Balaam,  and  unconscious  prophets  like  Caiaphas, 
and  prophets  whose  vision  was  sometimes  limited 
and  dim,  like  David  and  Isaiah  and  Daniel  and 
Mnlachi,  who  after  all  their  inquiry  and  investiga- 
tion, still  knew  that  the  words  they  uttered  were 
pregnant  with  a  meaning  that  stretched  out  into  the 
far  future  and  had  to  do  with  the  faith  and  the  life 
of  remote  generations.  This  was  what  the  Apostle 
Peter  meant  when  he  said  :  "Of  which  salvation 
the  prophets  have  inquired  and  searched  diligently, 
who  prophesied  of  the  grace  that  should  come  unto 
you  :  searching  what,  or  what  manner  of  time  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them  did  signify, 
when  it  testified  beforehand  the  sufferings  of  Christ, 
and  the  glory  that  should  follow.  Unto  whom  it 
was  revealed,  that  not  unto  themselves,  but  unto  us 
they  did  minister  the  things,  which  are  now  reported 
unto  you  by  them  that  have  preached  the  gospel 
unto  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from 
heaven  ;  which  things  the  angels  desire  to  look 
into." 

These  words  contain  the  distinct  declaration  that 
those  in  old  time  who  spoke  for  God,  and  were  his 
messengers  in  the  gradual   unfolding  of  the  great 


238  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

plan  of  human  redemption,  possessed  only  a  limited 
knowledge  and  a  limited  vision,  and  after  all  their 
diligent  and  devout  inquiry  into  the  definite  purport 
of  their  utterances,  which  were  inspired  by  the  ever- 
living  spirit  of  Christ,  they  only  knew  that  they 
were  speaking  for  future  generations,  and  that  other 
eyes  than  theirs  should  look  upon  the  final  and 
glorious  fulfillment,  and  that  other  hearts  than 
theirs  should  feel  the  glow  and  the  splendor  of  that 
bright  day  of  which  they  were  the  prophetic  morn- 
ing stars.  This  is  the  uniform  opinion  of  all  be- 
lievers in  Old  Testament  inspiration  and  prophecy. 
Dr.  Broadus  very  justly  remarks  : 

Many  prophecies  received  fulfillments  which  the  prophet 
does  not  appear  to  have  at  all  contemplated.  But  as  God's 
providence  often  brought  about  the  fulfillment,  though  the 
human  actors  were  heedless  or  even  ignorant  of  the  predic- 
tions they  fulfilled,  so  God's  Spirit  often  contemplated  ful- 
fillments of  which  the  prophet  had  no  conception,  but  which 
the  evangelist  makes  known.  And  it  is  of  a  piece  with  the 
general  development  of  revelation  that  the  later  inspiration 
should  explain  the  records  of  the  earlier  inspiration,  and 
that  only  after  the  events  have  occurred  should  the  earlier 
predictions  of  them  be  understood. 

And  this  is  of  a  piece  also  with  the  general  de- 
velopment of  history,  if  we  believe,  as  we  must,  that 
God  has  to  do  with  the  lives  of  men  and  of  nations, 
and  with  the  general  progress  of  the  race  toward  a 
definite  goal.     The  events  of  to-day,  and  even  the 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  239 

utterances  of  to-day,  may  be  dimly  prophetic  of  the 
future  and  of  a  new  order  and  a  coming  condition, 
and  will  be  better  understood  in  the  clearer  light 
of  the  coming  time  than  they  possibly  can  be  now, 
just  as  we,  who  are  farther  down  the  stream  of  time, 
understand  past  events  and  past  history  better  than 
the  actors  in  them  did.  Every  man  and  every 
nation,  working  in  harmony  with  God  and  his 
unfolding  providence,  is  in  some  sense,  whether 
conscious  of  it  or  not,  fulfilling  the  past  and  at  the 
same  time  a  prophet  of  the  future.  Tennyson  has 
given  to  us  a  true  interpretation  of  history  and  of 
life  in  the  words  : 

Yet  I  doubt  not  through  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose 

runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widened  with  the  process  of 

the  suns. 

God  works  no  otherwise.  In  the  progress  of  spe- 
cific revelation,  as  in  the  progress  of  humanity,  it  is 
prediction  and  fulfillment,  prediction  and  fulfill- 
ment ;  the  later  interpreters,  whose  hearts  are  illu- 
mined by  the  Spirit  of  God,  unfolding  and  applying 
the  utterances  of  the  earlier  prophets,  who  spake  as 
they  were  moved  by  the  same  Spirit,  though  the 
full  meaning  of  their  words  they  may  not  have  per- 
fectly comprehended. 

In   our  study  of  the    Messianic   psalms  we  have 
accepted  the  interpretation  of  Christ  and  the  New 


24O  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Testament  writers  as  correct  and  authoritative.  It 
has  not  seemed  necessary  or  wise  or  justifiable  to 
question  that.  Indeed,  to  do  so  is  inevitably  to 
undermine  all  faith  in  their  authority  as  teachers  of 
ethical  and  religious  truth.  Their  interpretation  of 
the  teachings  of  the  Old  Testament  formed  an  es- 
sential and  integral  part  of  their  religious  system. 
Upon  it  they  based  their  doctrine  of  God,  of  sin,  of 
salvation,  and  of  life  everlasting.  If  they  are  open 
to  criticism  at  this  vital  point,  and  are  chargeable 
with  errors  and  false  interpretations,  can  we  have 
confidence  in  them  at  any  point?  Who  shall  say 
where  their  fallibility  ceases  and  their  infallibility 
begins  ?  Or  who  shall  say  that  they  have  any  infalli- 
bility at  all,  and  can  be  accepted  as  divinely  com- 
missioned and  authoritative  expounders  of  religious 
truth  ?  To  believe  Christ  and  the  apostles  to  be 
untrustworthy  in  the  use  of  what  they  believed  to 
be  the  word  of  God  is  to  fill  the  mind  with  a  univer- 
sal suspicion  and  doubt. 

It  has  been  said  by  Prof.  C.  H.  Toy,  that  we 
"  must  distinguish  between  the  biblical  interpreta- 
tion of  the  evangelists  and  apostles,  and  their  au- 
thority as  historians  and  teachers  of  ethics  and  re- 
ligion." In  other  words,  their  interpretations  may 
be  faulty  and  false,  but  the  doctrines  derived  from 
those  interpretations  may  be  accepted  as  absolutely 
and  unquestionably  true,  a  position  which  seems 
strangely  inconsistent   and   untenable.     The  same 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  24 1 

strictures,  moreover,  are  applied  to  our  Lord  him- 
self.     Professor  Toy  says  : 

As  an  individual  man,  he  had  of  necessity  a  definite,  re- 
stricted intellectual  outfit  and  outlook  ;  and  these  could  be 
only  those  of  his  day  and  generation.  .  .  Why  should  Christ 
be  supposed  to  know  the  science  of  the  criticism  of  the  Old 
Testament,  which  began  to  exist  centuries  after  his  death  ? 
.  .  .  Christ  follows  the  hermeneutical  principles  and  shares 
the  hermeneutical  opinions  of  his  day.  .  .  We  cannot  assume 
Christ's  teaching  and  his  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  be  final  authority.  .  .  The  science  of  hermeneutics 
is  the  final  authority  when  it  seems  to  us  to  come  in  con- 
flict with  him.  .  .  The  Bible  itself  nowhere  teaches  that 
a  holy  man,  sent  with  a  message  from  God,  or  a  son  of  God, 
the  embodiment  of  the  divine  [by  which  is  evidently  meant 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God]  would  be  lifted  above  the 
ordinary'  conditions  of  human  life. 

All  of  which  is  entirely  contrary  to  the  facts  in 
the  case,  and  flatly  contradicted  by  the  claims  of 
Christ  and  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament. 
Jesus  Christ  was  lifted  above  the  ordinary  condi- 
tions of  human  life.  It  has  been  found  impossible 
to  classify  him.  Though  he  was  an  actual  histori- 
cal character,  and  lived  at  a  definite  period  in  the 
history  of  the  Jewish  nation  and  of  the  world,  and 
in  a  well  understood  age,  he  was  infinitely  superior 
to  his  age  and  to  any  age,  and  possessed  attributes 
and  characteristics  which  separated  him  by  an  im- 
measurable distance  from  the  men  of  his  time  and 
of  all  times.      He  was  absolutely  sinless.     Surely 

Q 


242  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

this  counts  for  something  in  estimating  a  person's 
relations  to  God  and  truth  and  his  authority  as  a 
teacher.  He  spake  as  never  man  spake  and  as 
one  having  authority.  He  wrought  miracles,  hav- 
ing power  over  all  diseases  and  organic  defects  and 
over  the  forces  of  nature,  yea,  even  over  death 
itself.  His  incarnation  and  resurrection,  both  well 
attested  and  impregnable  facts,  clothe  with  a  super- 
natural halo  his  whole  earthly  manifestation.  He 
took  upon  himself  human  nature.  He  was  in 
some  true,  though  mysterious  sense,  one  of  us. 
Yet  he  was  above  us,  human  and  at  the  same 
time  divine.  He  was  the  Son  of  man  and  the  Son 
of  God,  not  a  Son  of  man  but  the  Son  of  man,  as  if 
he  was  the  offspring,  not  of  an  earthly  father  and 
mother,  but  the  offspring  of  humanity  ;  and  not  a 
Son  of  God,  as  if  he  was  simply  one  of  a  race 
created  in  God's  image  and  in  some  sense  his  off- 
spring, but  the  Son  of  God,  pre-eminently,  pecu- 
liarly, exceptionally,  the  Son  of  God,  "  the  only 
begotten  Son  of  God."  To  take  any  other  view 
of  Christ,  and  attempt  to  put  him  on  a  level  with 
the  men  of  his  time,  and  circumscribe  him  by  the 
restrictions  of  his  time,  is  to  fly  in  the  face  of  the 
inspired  records.  A  hermeneutical  science  that 
undertakes  to  do  this  shows  itself  to  be  no  science. 
It  proclaims  its  own  fallibility  and  untrustworthi- 
ness. 

Moreover,  Christ  was  not  only  possessed  of  per- 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  243 

feet  sinlessness  and  miraculous  power,  but  also  of 
divine  wisdom.  He  knew  what  was  in  men,  their 
unuttered  thoughts  and  motives.  He  knew  the 
deatli  of  Lazarus  before  it  was  announced,  and  saw 
Nathanael  under  the  fig  tree.  He  predicted  his 
own  death  and  resurrection  and  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem.  All  this  was  vastly  different  from  ordi- 
nary or  extraordinary  insight  or  far-sight  or  fore- 
sight. It  was  of  the  nature  of  omniscience.  More 
than  this.  He  not  only  knew  what  was  in  man, 
but  he  knew  what  was  in  God,  his  perfect  will  and 
his  eternal  purpose.  He  knew  that  will  and  pur- 
pose as  they  had  been  unfolded  through  the  cen- 
turies of  Jewish  history,  and  as  they  were  then 
finding  their  culminating  manifestation  in  his  life 
and  death  in  Judea.  Moreover,  he  was  the  Word 
of  God,  the  perfect  expression  of  the  mind,  the 
thought,  the  wisdom  of  the  Almighty,  so  far  as  it 
was  necessary  for  human  salvation.  He  had,  also, 
the  miraculous  endorsement  of  the  Father,  as  the 
absolute  and  authoritative  teacher  of  truth,  who 
said  of  him  again  and  again,  "This  is  my  beloved 
Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased  ;  hear  ye  him." 

It  seems  absurd  to  say  that  such  a  being  had 
only  "the  restricted  intellectual  outfit  and  outlook 
of  his  day  and  generation."  He  himself  claimed 
that  his  mission  on  earth  was  to  fulfill  that  which 
had  been  before  of  typical  history  and  unfolding 
divine    purpose    and    prophetic    intimation,    all   of 


244  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

which  he  must  have  understood  accurately  in  order 
to  fulfill  it.  He  was  constantly  pointing  to  Old 
Testament  incidents  as  types  of  himself  and  to  Old 
Testament  language  as  foreshadowing  his  coming, 
his  suffering,  and  his  glory.  To  say  that  he  simply 
followed  the  hermeneutical  principles  of  his  time, 
and  therefore  was  restricted  and  liable  to  error, 
that  he  intentionally,  not  knowing  that  it  was  true, 
applied  language  to  himself  which  had  no  applica- 
tion to  him,  and  allowed  his  disciples  to  do  so,  is 
an  open  impeachment  of  his  moral  sincerity.  It  is 
not  a  question  of  intellectual  restriction,  but  of 
moral  integrity.  In  that  memorable  walk  with  the 
disciples  to  Emmaus  after  the  resurrection,  it  is 
recorded  that  Jesus  said  to  their  doubting  minds, 
"O  fools,  and  slow  of  heart  to  believe  all  that  the 
prophets  have  spoken,  ought  not  Christ  to  have 
suffered  these  things  and  to  enter  into  his  glory? 
And  beginning  at  Moses  [or  more  strictly,  from 
Moses]  and  all  the  prophets,  he  expounded  unto 
them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning 
himself."  Another  has  said  :  "If  Luke  could  have 
imparted  to  us  the  instruction  communicated  in 
that  discourse,  developing  the  true  sense  of  the 
prophecies  from  the  opening  gospel  of  Gen.  3:15 
to  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  in  Mai.  4  :  2,  what 
volumes  of  groping  discussion  in  later  ages  might 
we  well  have  spared  !"  Yet  that  fullness  of  record 
would  have  been  no  protection  against  that  modern 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  245 

spirit  of  rash  criticism  which  is  ready  to  deny  the 
accuracy  of  the  gospel-record,  and  question  the 
final  authority  of  our  Lord  as  an  interpreter.  If 
those  two  disciples  had  had  a  suspicion  that  Christ 
was  talking  about  what  he  did  not  positively  know, 
in  applying  Messianic  prophecy  after  Messianic 
prophecy  to  himself,  in  all  the  Scriptures  beginning 
from  Moses,  instead  of  their  hearts  burning  within 
them  with  devout  wonder  and  adoring  gratitude, 
they  would  have  burned  with  righteous  indignation. 

Christ  certainly  spoke  with  a  confidence  born  of 
absolute  knowledge,  when  he  asserted  the  fulfill- 
ment in  himself  of  passage  after  passage  of  the 
Jewish  Scriptures,  finding  them  in  each  of  the 
three  great  divisions  into  which  the  sacred  books 
were  divided.  Just  before  his  ascension  into 
heaven  he  said  to  his  disciples  :  "  These  are  the 
words  which  I  spake  unto  you,  while  I  was  yet 
with  you,  that  all  things  must  be  fulfilled  which 
were  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  and  in  the 
prophets,  and  in  the  psalms,  concerning  me." 

The  only  basis  for  ascribing  such  human  limita- 
tions to  Christ  as  to  make  him  simply  a  man  of  his 
time,  circumscribed  in  knowledge,  restricted  in  in- 
tellectual outlook,  bounded  by  the  ordinary  condi- 
tions of  human  life,  sharing  the  hermeneutical 
opinions  of  his  day,  right  or  wrong,  as  liable  to 
mistakes  in  interpretation  as  his  neighbors,  and 
indeed  guilty  of  applying  to  himself  and  of  allow- 


246  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

ing  his  disciples  to  apply  to  him  Old  Testament 
passages  which  had  no  application  to  him,  is  that 
one  exceptional,  solitary,  mysterious  confession  of 
his,  contained  in  Mark  13  :  32,  "Of  that  day  and 
that  hour  knoweth  no  man,  no,  not  the  angels 
which  are  in  heaven,  neither  the  Son,  but  the 
Father."  This  confession  of  Christ's,  which  stands 
absolutely  alone  and  is  limited  to  a  particular 
event,  and  is  to  us  irreconcilable  with  the  character 
of  the  Son  of  God  everywhere  manifest  in  the  Gos- 
pels, has  been  made  to  justify  a  supposition  of 
human  limitations  which  he  never  exhibited,  and 
of  liability  to  errors  of  which  there  is  no  slightest 
evidence.  Whatever  may  be  the  explanation  of 
those  mysterious  words,  as  mysterious  as  the  union 
of  the  human  and  the  divine  in  Christ's  nature 
and  personality,  they  have  been  greatly  overworked. 
The  inferences  sometimes  drawn  from  them  are 
utterly  unjustifiable.      Prof.  John  Kennedy  says  : 

The  proper  inference  from  these  words  is,  not  that  there 
might  be  many  other  things  which  he  did  not  know,  but 
that  if  there  were  other  things  which  he  did  not  know,  he 
would  have  made  the  like  confession  instead  of  this.  We 
find  him  actually  claiming  a  knowledge  far  more  wonderful 
than  that  which  he  disclaimed  :  "All  things  are  delivered 
unto  me  of  my  Father  :  and  no  man  knoweth  the  Son,  but 
the  Father  :  neither  knoweth  any  man  the  Father,  save  the 
Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal  him. ' ' l     The 

1  Matt,  n  =27. 


THE    MESSIAH    IX    THE    PSALMS  247 

"all  things"  delivered  to  Christ  by  the  Kather  are  ex- 
plained, in  part  at  least,  by  words  used  on  other  occasions, 
"all  power,"  "all  judgment,"  the  forgiving  of  sin  and  the 
giving  of  life.  Need  we  wonder  that  the  Apostle  Peter 
should  say  of  him,  "  Lord,  thou  knowest  all  things"  ?l 

This  was  the  impression  which  Christ  made  upon 
his  disciples,  and  upon  the  men  of  his  day.  And 
this  is  the  impression  which  a  candid  reading  of  his 
biographies  and  contemplation  of  his  life  and  con- 
duct make  upon  the  mind  of  to-day,  the  impres- 
sion not  only  of  superior,  but  of  superhuman  wis- 
dom, the  possession  of  that  divine  fullness  of 
knowledge  which  constitutes  him  the  absolute 
Teacher  of  truth  in  all  things.  As  Canon  Rawlin- 
son  says  :  "  If  in  all  this  there  was  not  displayed  a 
divine  consciousness,  knowledge  more  than  human, 
it  is  difficult  to  see  how  such  knowledge  could  have 
been  manifested." 

The  indefinite  kcnosis  in  Phil.  2  :  8  must  be  de- 
termined in  view  of  the  facts  of  Christ's  life  that 
are  known.  We  have  no  other  way  of  understand- 
ing what  it  means.  To  make  it  the  basis  of  all 
sorts  of  conjectures  of  ignorance,  error,  not  to  say 
deception,  on  the  part  of  Christ,  as  is  sometimes 
done,  is  utterly  unscientific  and  unjustifiable. 

A  like  authority  attaches  to  the  teachings  of 
Christ's  disciples,  and  to  their  interpretation  of  the 
Messianic  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament.     They 

'John  21  :  17. 


248  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

sat  for  three  years  under  the  careful  instruction  of 
their  Master,  and  received  from  him  that  training 
in  the  truth  which  was  to  fit  them  for  its  promulga- 
tion in  the  world,  as  its  authoritative  teachers.  He 
was  constantly  "  expounding  unto  them  in  all  the 
Scriptures  the  things  concerning  himself,"  and  con- 
stantly "opening  their  understanding  that  they 
might  understand  the  Scriptures."  They  were  to 
go  and  teach  all  nations,  "  teaching  them  to  ob- 
serve all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you."  They  had  the  positive  and  clearly  unfolded 
message  of  a  divine  and  painstaking  Teacher, 
whose  progressive  kingdom  depended  upon  the  in- 
telligent apprehension  and  faithfulness  of  his  dis- 
ciples. And  still  further,  as  if  to  safeguard  them 
from  all  possibility  of  error,  he  gave  them  the 
promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  truth, 
whose  special  office  should  be  to  lead  these  teach- 
ers of  men  into  all  the  truth  of  God. 

To  say,  then,  that  we  have  not  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, in  Christ  and  his  apostles,  the  final  au- 
thority in  the  interpretation  of  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures, is  to  blind  one's  eyes  to  the  character  and 
claims  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  to  make  him  so 
liable  to  human  error,  not  to  say  intentional  decep- 
tion, as  to  destrov  all  confidence  in  his  recorded 
utterances  on  any  subject. 

It  is  to  ignore  the  careful  and  prolonged  training 
of  the  first  disciples  by  Christ  in  all  the  Scriptures 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  249 

in  the  things  pertaining  to  himself,  and  to  deny  the 
promise  of  Christ  and  its  fulfillment,  of  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  those  who  were  appointed  to 
be  the  guides  and  instructors  of  men  in  the  saving 
truths  of  the  gospel. 

Moreover,  it  is  to  ascribe  to  a  so-called  herme- 
neutical  science,  that  has  been  projected  by  fallible 
men,  an  infallibility  which  is  denied  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  This  science  is  confessedly  of  recent 
origin,  and  thus  far  has  led  to  most  divergent  re- 
sults. It  may  be  that  to  call  it  a  science  at  all  is 
to  attribute  to  it  a  character  which  does  not  belong 
to  it,  to  ascribe  to  it  an  authority  which  it  does  not 
deserve,  and  to  give  to  its  conflicting  conclusions  a 
certainty  which  their  very  antagonisms  make  im- 
possible. Science  deals  with  facts,  and  has  to  do 
with  certified  knowledge. 

There  are  certain  principles  of  interpretation 
which  are  fundamental  ;  but  there  is  none  that  is 
more  fundamental  than  this,  that  the  Old  Testa- 
ment must  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  the  New. 
He  who  would  understand  either  must  understand 
both.  He  who  would  accept  either  must  accept 
both.  Professor  Sayce,  the  distinguished  archae- 
ologist of  Oxford,  who  has  done  much  to  show  not 
only  the  weakness  but  the  folly  of  a  purely  lin- 
guistic and  conjectural  criticism,  says  : 

The  New  Testament  cannot  be  easily  separated  from  its 
forerunner,  the  Old.      Not  only  docs  the  New  Testament 


25O  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

presuppose  the  Old,  it  presupposes  also  the  historical  credi- 
bility of  the  Old.  The  appeal  to  the  law  and  the  prophets 
would  lose  its  weight,  if  the  law  were  not  what  the  Jews  of 
the  first  century  believed  it  to  be,  or  if  the  Messiah  of  the 
prophets  were  not  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

And  he  does  not  hesitate,  in  the  light  of  the 
monumental  testimony  of  the  past,  which  is  in 
such  a  wonderful  way  confirming  the  antiquity  and 
the  credibility  of  the  Bible,  to  pronounce  much  of 
the  biblical  criticism  of  to-day  "  extravagant," 
"  unscientific,"  and  "  unhistoric."  And  in  this 
judgment  he  is  supported  by  some  of  the  ablest 
scholars  of  two  continents.  The  archaeologists  are 
uniformly  on  the  side  of  the  traditional  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Scriptures.  We  may  affirm,  therefore, 
that  biblical  criticism  is  hardly  in  a  position  to 
claim  infallibility,  and  that  though  Christ  may  have 
been  unacquainted  with  the  methods  of  so-called 
scientific  criticism,  he  could  not  have  mistaken  the 
meaning  of  his  own  Bible,  the  Scriptures  which 
his  Spirit  is  declared  to  have  inspired  and  given  to 
men. 

It  should  be  added  that  because  the  rabbinical 
interpreters  sometimes  carried  their  Messianic  in- 
terpretations too  far,  and  became  fanciful  in  their 
views,  that  does  not  in  any  degree  affect  the  fact 
that  there  are  genuine  predictions  of  Christ  "  in 
the  law  of  Moses,  and  in  the  prophets,  and  in  the 
psalms."       The    careful    and    conservative    use    of 


THE    MESSIAH    IX    THE    PSALMS  25  I 

Messianic  quotations  by  New  Testament  writers,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  evidence  that  they  were  not 
carried  off  their  feet  by  the  spirit  of  the  time,  but 
were  rather  under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of 
God.  They  too  spoke  as  they  were  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  They  were  inspired  interpreters  of 
inspired  prophecies. 

The  consideration  which  we  have  given  to  these 
Messianic  portions  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  has 
served  to  emphasize  three  important  facts. 

First,  there  is  a  visible  progress  in  the  revelation 
contained  in  the  Bible,  from  Genesis  onward, 
through  moral  precept,  prophetic  utterance,  per- 
sonal type,  and  religious  ceremony,  until,  "in  the 
fullness  of  time"  the  revelation  culminated  in  the 
coming,  the  person,  the  mission,  the  doctrine,  the 
work  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  it  may  be  added  that  in 
the  New  Testament  there  is  a  progressive  unfolding 
of  divine  truth  as  the  minds  of  the  disciples  were 
able  to  apprehend  it ;  all  being  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  sometimes  called  the  Spirit  of 
God  and  sometimes  the  Spirit  of  Christ ;  so  that 
the  Bible  can  be  understood  only  as  its  books  are 
studied  in  their  relation  to  each  other,  being  bound 
together  by  a  clearly  recognizable  purpose,  and 
unified  into  a  complete  whole,  and  constituting  in 
their  entirety  God's  highest  and  fullest  revelation 
of  himself  to  his  intelligent  moral  creatures,  vastly 
superior,  both  as  imaging  the  being  and  character 


252  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

of  God  and  as  meeting  the  spiritual  necessities  of 
men,  to  the  revelation  which  the  material  universe 
contains,  and  enforcing  and  supplementing  in  most 
necessary  ways  the  testimony  of  the  ethical  nature 
of  man  to  the  existence  and  government  of  God. 
This  progress  in  revelation  is  not  a  progress  from 
error  to  truth,  but  from  incompleteness  to  com- 
pleteness, from  truth  to  larger  truth,  from  prophecy 
to  fulfillment,  from  the  bulb  and  the  root  to  the 
consummate  flower  and  fruit.  The  life  is  the  same 
in  its  various  manifestations.  The  unity  of  revela- 
tion is  preserved  in  its  progressive  stages.  The 
Old  Testament  and  the  New  are  forever  bound  to- 
gether by  the  cords  of  fulfilled  prophecy. 

Secondly,  the  existence  of  veritable  prophecy 
establishes  the  fact  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scrip- 
tures which  contain  it.  A  single  prophecy  and  its 
fulfillment  might  be  an  accident.  But  a  whole 
series  of  prophecies,  scores  and  hundreds,  which 
are  known  to  have  come  to  pass,  must  certify  to 
the  divine  origin  of  the  book  in  which  they  are 
found.  They  constitute  an  indisputable  super- 
natural element  in  the  holy  Scriptures  of  our  faith. 
They  are  the  evidence  of  the  indwelling  in  the 
minds  of  the  writers  of  the  omniscient  Spirit  of 
God.  It  is  the  supernatural  foreseeing  and  fore- 
telling, and  not  the  natural  imagining  and  guessing. 
The  Bible  cannot  be  regarded  as  the  product  of 
unaided  natural  forces,  simply  the  result  of  the  in- 


THE    MESSIAH     IN    THE    PSALMS  253 

tellectual  activity  of  the  times  in  which  its  books 
were  produced,  a  local,  uninspired,  humanly  con- 
structed literature,  and  therefore  without  special 
authority  or  claim  upon  the  reverence  and  faith  of 
mankind. 

These  books  must  have,  to  some  extent,  a  local 
and  temporal  coloring.  The  divine  stream  must 
flow  through  human  channels.  The  divine  message 
must  find  expression  in  human  language.  God's 
life  and  God's  thought,  in  order  to  reach  and  affect 
men,  must  be  interwoven  with  the  history  of  men 
and  of  nations.  There  must  be  a  human  element 
in  revelation.  "  Holy  men  spake  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  If  in  the  past  the 
human  element  in  the  Scriptures  has  been  over- 
looked, it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  "  the  opposite 
tendency  now  prevails,  namely,  of  emphasizing  the 
human  element  to  the  detriment  of  the  divine." 
Another  has  said  : 

Just  in  proportion  as  modern  criticism  of  the  Bible  assigns 
the  controlling  power  in  the  composition  of  the  Scriptures 
to  the  human  factor  uninfluenced  by  the  divine,  does  it 
depart  from  the  traditional  views  of  the  evangelical  church, 
and  make  the  holy  records  more  a  production  of  man  than 
of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  whole  purpose  of  revelation  would  be 
thwarted,  if  the  human  element  in  it  were  such 
as  to  destroy  or  disturb  confidence  in  the  divine 
element   and  purpose   in    it,  and  the  former  were 


254  THE    MESSIAH     IN    THE    PSALMS 

not  kept  in  subordination  to  the  latter  and  un- 
der its  supreme  control,  leaving  the  product  God's 
message,  God's  thought,  God's  will,  expressing 
itself  unmistakably  to  men,  clothed  with  divine 
authority,  containing  its  own  credentials,  able  to 
enforce  its  own  claims,  and  in  some  way  to  authen- 
ticate itself  to  the  intelligence  and  conscience,  the 
faith  and  obedience  of  men.  In  some  true  sense 
the  gospel  is  "its  own  witness,"  to  use  Andrew 
Fuller's  phrase,  testifying  to  the  world  its  divine 
character  and  supernatural  origin,  and  carrying 
conviction  to  every  mind  that  is  willing  to  be  con- 
vinced, that  it  is  not  of  men,  but  of  God,  that  it  is 
not  of  evolution,  but  of  inspiration. 

Suppose  the  Bible  to  be  the  product  of  natural 
forces ;  then  we  have  no  standard  of  authority  out- 
side of  the  incomplete,  indistinct,  and  changeful 
utterances  of  our  own  consciousness.  Every  man 
becomes  not  only  his  own  pope,  but  his  own  Bi- 
ble, whose  utterance,  affected  by  the  introduction 
of  sin  into  the  world,  may  be  as  ambiguous  and 
untrustworthy  as  a  heathen  oracle.  On  the  other 
hand,  suppose  the  Bible  to  be  inspired  and  guided 
in  its  teachings  by  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  then  we  have 
an  authoritative  utterance,  a  supreme  guide  to  faith 
and  duty,  a  standard  of  final  appeal  in  morals  and 
religion,  a  revelation  for  all  lands  and  all  ages  of 
the  world. 

And   thirdly,  our  study  of  the  Messianic  psalms 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  255 

has  impressed  us  with  the  fact  that  Christ  was  the 
sum  and  object  of  all  revelation.  The  light  of  di- 
vine prophecy,  with  its  splendid  and  multitudinous 
rays,  converged  in  him.  The  star  in  the  East,  which 
appeared  at  the  birth  of  the  Saviour,  was  but  the 
materialization  of  that  prophetic  star  which  had 
been  shining  through  all  the  previous  centuries  of 
the  history  of  God's  chosen  people.  The  Christ 
of  history  was  preceded  by  the  Christ  of  prophecy. 
It  is  the  same  Christ.  The  biography  was  out- 
lined and  the  picture  limned  centuries  before  he 
was  born.  There  is  no  mistaking  the  identity  of 
the  picture  and  the  reality.  We  need  not  now  in- 
quire, "Art  thou  he  that  should  come,  or  do  we 
look  for  another?"  We  can  say,  as  Philip  said  to 
Nathanael,  "We  have  found  him  of  whom  Moses 
in  the  law,  and  the  prophets  did  write."  Other 
prophecies  there  are,  recorded  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  New,  some  of  which  have  been  unmistak- 
ably fulfilled,  and  others  yet  await  their  accomplish- 
ment. All  these  are  proof  that  God  has  knowledge 
and  supervision  of  human  history.  But  the  pri- 
mary function  of  divine  prophecy  was  the  revelation 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Messiah  of  the  Jews,  and  the 
Redeemer  of  the  world.  This  supernatural  element 
in  God's  plan  for  the  instruction,  the  moral  eleva- 
tion, the  recovery  of  lost  men,  may  be  said  to  have 
been  introduced  as  a  necessary  means  in  making 
ready  the   thought   and   life   of  the  world   for  the 


256  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

great  Incarnation,  in  establishing  the  claims  of  the 
incarnate  Son  of  God  upon  the  faith  and  obedi- 
ence of  men,  and  in  linking  the  destiny  of  the  race 
with  the  progress  and  triumph  of  his  kingdom,  as 
foretold  by  himself,  as  well  as  by  those  whose  lips 
were  opened  by  his  Spirit,  both  before  and  after 
him.      Dr.  George  A.  Gordon  says  : 

The  Bible  is  the  monumental  record  of  the  monumental 
revelation  of  the  mind  of  God  to  mankind.  The  great  in- 
strument of  this  disclosure  of  the  thought  of  the  Eternal  is 
prophetic  genius,  and  this  mediating  instrumentality  be- 
comes supreme  and  final  in  the  prophetic  mind  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

No  sane  mind  can  question  that  the  object  was 
worthy  of  the  supernatural  means,  that  the  person 
and  mission  of  the  Son  of  God  are  an  anthem 
worthy  of  the  prolonged  prophetic  prelude,  that 
those  brief,  but  glorious  years  of  earthly  manifesta- 
tion and  the  results  which  have  already  followed 
among  men  and  nations,  amply  justify  the  slow 
centuries  of  inspired  anticipation  and  reiterated 
hope. 

Christ,  to  whom  the  burden  of  prophecy  pointed, 
was  and  has  remained  the  highest  expression  of 
Godhood  and  manhood  that  has  appeared  in  hu- 
man history,  or  that  has  been  conceived  by  man. 
Men  have  obtained  new  and  exalted  conceptions 
of  Deity  as  they  have  known  Christ,  and  new  and 
exalted   conceptions   of  human  life  as  well.     The 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  257 

language  of  Edwin  Arnold  presents  an  exalted  hu- 
man aspect  of  Christ's  personality  which  hardly 
escapes  being  divine : 

First  born  of  heaven,  first  soul  of  human  souls, 
Which  touched  the  top  of  manhood,  and  from  height 
Of  Godlike  pure  humanity  reached  God. 

Christ's  own  words  have  been  uniformly  accepted 
as  descriptive  of  his  relation  to  Deity  and  to  the 
life  of  humanity :  "This  is  life  eternal,  that  they 
might  know  thee,  the  only  true  God,"  the  only  be- 
ing in  whom  the  idea  of  God  has  been  perfectly 
realized,  "and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent," 
the  only  being  in  whom  the  idea  of  God  has  been 
perfectly  manifested.  And  so  to  millions  of  our 
race  the  Christ  of  Bethlehem  and  of  Calvary  has 
become  the  source  of  eternal  life,  of  spiritual  peace, 
and  of  immortal  hope.  They  have  accepted  him 
as  the  ordained  Prophet  of  absolute  and  saving 
truths,  the  anointed  Priest  who  is  the  sufficient 
sacrifice  for  human  guilt,  and  the  King  of  rightful 
and  blessed  reign.  He  has  become  to  them  the 
Alpha  and  Omega  of  personal  faith  and  experience. 

Through  him  the  first  fond  prayers  are  said, 

Our  lips  of  childhood  frame  ; 
The  last  low  whispers  of  our  dead 

Are  burdened  with  his  name. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  there  needs  to 
be  a  spiritual  preparation  for  the  apprehension  of 


258  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Christ.  To  know  him  simply  within  the  limits  of 
his  early  manifestation,  as  a  man  among  men,  is  to 
know  but  a  small  segment  of  his  being,  and  to  fail 
to  know  even  that  truly.  No  man  knows  a  seg- 
ment who  does  not  know  the  circle  to  which  it  be- 
longs. The  circle  of  Christ's  being  is  larger  than 
the  natural  eye  can  take  in.  Sympathy  is  the 
widest  door  to  knowledge.  Love  generates  in- 
sight. Only  a  mind  that  has  been  touched  by  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  can  apprehend  the  person  of  Christ 
in  prophecy  or  history  or  present  glory.  The  his- 
toric Christ  is  not  the  whole  Christ.  The  apos- 
tles, who  had  known  the  Christ  of  prophecy  and 
the  Christ  of  history,  passed  on  to  a  still  larger 
knowledge  of  him  after  his  resurrection.  Though 
they  had  known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet  hence- 
forth they  acknowledged  that  they  knew  him  within 
such  narrow  limitations  no  more.  The  person  of 
Christ  as  well  as  all  the  truths  of  his  kingdom  are 
spiritually  discerned.  No  wiser  words,  or  more 
necessary,  have  been  written  than  these  by  Rev. 
Stanley  Leathes : 

It  will  not  be  enough  to  have  known  Christ  after  the  flesh. 
To  be  in  harmony  with  these  ancient  writers,  we  must 
know  him  as  they  knew  him.  We  must  have  the  veil  rent 
aside  from  our  eyes  that  we  may  look  straight  into  the  mys- 
teries of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  It  is  Christ  as  a  living 
person,  and  not  merely  as  a  character  of  the  historic  past, 
a  speaking  but  inanimate  portrait  in  the  gallery  of  time, 
that  we  must  set  before  us.      It  is  the  spiritual  person  of  the 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  259 

Messiah,  existing  now,  as  then,  in  the  fullness  of  essential 
Godhead,  with  whom  we  must  hold  communion.  We  like- 
wise must  be  partakers  of  a  Messianic  consciousness  and 
have  a  personal  knowledge  of  the  person  of  the  Lord's 
Anointed,  before  we  can  appreciate  all  that  prophets  and 
kings  have  said  of  him.  And  to  this  end  we  must  be  filled 
with  the  Spirit  that  abode  on  him,  whose  office  it  is  to  take 
of  the  things  of  Christ  and  show  them  unto  us,  for  we  have 
been  assured  on  apostolic  authority  that  "no  man  can  say 
that  Jesus  is  the  Lord  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Christ  has  vindicated  his  claim  as  the  worthy  ob- 
ject of  divine  prophecy,  not  only  by  his  ministry  to 
millions  of  men  as  their  personal  Saviour,  but  by 
his  moral  influence  upon  society  as  a  social  regen- 
erator. Wherever  Christianity  has  been  received 
as  a  spiritual  faith,  its  fruits  have  been  abundant, 
and  uniformly  the  same.  Wherever  it  has  had 
free  course,  it  has  been  glorified.  It  has  reformed 
men,  has  sweetened  and  sanctified  the  family  and 
the  home,  has  made  the  life  of  woman  tolerable 
and  her  happiness  secure,  has  regenerated  social 
life,  has  changed  customs,  has  affected  legislation, 
has  elevated  nations,  and  has  purified  civilizations, 
so  far  as  they  have  been  purified.  It  has  done  not 
a  little  to  bring  about  that  new  social  order,  which 
is  distinctly  portrayed  in  the  Messianic  prophecies. 
And  this  it  has  done  through  the  wonderful  per- 
sonal influence  of  its  divine  founder.  One  needs 
but  to  read  such  books  as  Uhlhorn's  "Conflict  of 
Christianity  with    Heathenism,"    Schmidt's  "Essai 


260  THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS 

Historique"  Brace's  "  Gcsta  C/iristi,"  Storrs'  "The 
Divine  Origin  of  Christianity  indicated  by  its  His- 
torical Effects,"  or  even  that  popular  historical 
novel  "Quo  Vadis,"  to  be  persuaded  that  for  what- 
ever is  highest  and  best,  aye,  for  whatever  is  decent 
and  respectable,  in  our  social  life  and  our  modern 
civilization,  we  are  indebted  to  the  life  and  teaching 
of  the  Man  of  Galilee.  One  testimony  will  be 
sufficient  to  prove  what  no  one  calls  in  question. 
Lecky,  in  his  "History  of  European  Morals,"  says: 

It  was  reserved  for  Christianity  to  present  to  the  world  an 
ideal  character,  who  through  all  the  ages  of  eighteen  cen- 
turies has  inspired  the  hearts  of  men  with  an  impassioned 
love  ;  has  shown  itself  capable  of  acting  on  all  ages,  na- 
tions, temperaments,  and  conditions  ;  has  been  not  only 
the  highest  pattern  of  virtue,  but  the  strongest  incentive  to 
its  practice,  and  has  exercised  so  deep  an  influence  that  it 
may  be  truly  said  that  the  simple  record  of  three  short 
years  of  active  life  has  done  more  to  regenerate  and  soften 
mankind  than  all  the  disquisitions  of  philosophers  and  all 
the  exhortations  of  moralists. 

It  remains  only  to  be  said  that  He,  in  whose 
character  and  in  the  incidents  of  whose  recorded 
life,  from  his  birth  to  his  death  and  resurrection, 
so  much  of  ancient  prophecy  was  fulfilled,  and  who 
has  already  pushed  on  his  foretold  conquests  over 
so  much  of  the  earth's  surface,  cannot  fail  to  bring 
all  nations  at  last  into  subjection  to  himself  accord- 
ing to  the  declared  will  of  God.      Not  yet  are  all 


THE    MESSIAH    IN    THE    PSALMS  26 1 

things  fulfilled  "which  were  written  in  the  law  of 
Moses,  and  in  the  prophets,  and  in  the  Psalms" 
concerning  him.  The  prophetic  Christ  and  the 
historic  Christ  must  be  the  triumphant  Christ. 
Prophecy  fulfilled  is  the  pledge  of  the  fulfillment 
of  remaining  prophecy.  No  Christian  can  despair 
of  the  victory  of  truth  over  falsehood  and  error,  of 
righteousness  over  sin,  of  purity  over  all  forms  of 
corruption,  of  peace  over  hatred  and  strife,  of  light 
over  darkness,  of  Christian  missions  over  all  false 
religions,  of  the  Lord  Christ  over  the  opposing 
forces  of  evil  in  the  world.  Christianity  is  declared 
to  be  the  progressive,  exclusive,  and  final  religion. 
That  it  may  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the 
prophet,  "He  shall  have  the  heathen  for  his  inher- 
itance, and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  his 
possession."  That  it  may  be  fulfilled  which  was 
spoken  by  the  prophet,  "All  kings  shall  fall  down 
before  him,  all  nations  shall  serve  him."  That  it 
may  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet, 
"He  must  reign  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under 
his  feet."  That  it  may  be  fulfilled  which  was 
spoken  by  the  prophet,  "  In  his  name  every  knee 
shall  bow  and  every  tongue  confess  that  he  is  Lord 
to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father."  That  it  may  be 
fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet,  "The 
kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become  the  kingdoms 
of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ,  and  he  shall  reign 
for  ever  and  ever." 


INDEX   OF  AUTHORS  QUOTED 


Aben-Ezra,  129. 
Alexander,  J.  A.,  64,  66,  92. 
Alford,  Henry,  I,  176. 
Arnold,  Edwin,  257. 
Arnold,  Thomas,  128. 

Bacon,  Francis,  154. 
Barrows,  E.  P.,  4,  175.  202. 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  It;. 
Brace,  C.  L.,  2ti0. 
Briggs,  Chas.  A.,  179. 
Broadus,  John  A.,  20",  220,  238. 

Calvin,  John,  30,  52,  100,  188. 
Cheyne,  T.  k..  102, 181,  218. 
Clarke,  \V.  N.,  58,  54. 

Dale,  R.  W.,  62. 

Delitzsch,  E.,  30,  104,  124,  152,  180. 

Dennis,  James  B.,  117. 

De  Wette,  W.  M.  L.,  30,  151,187. 

Ebrard,  J.  H.  A.,  132. 
Edersheim,  Alfred,  67,  222,  230. 
Ellicott,  C.  J.,  225. 
Ewald,  Q.  H.  A.,  73. 

Farrar,  F.  \\\.  38,  94. 
Fuller,  Andrew,  254. 

Geikie,  Cunningham,  203,  210,  219, 

227. 
Qodet,  V.  L.,  87,  88,  184,  191,  225. 
Gordon,  George  A.,  76,  256. 

Hackett,  H.  B.,  91,  101,  149,  201. 


'    Base,  Carl,  4f.. 
Hengstenberg,  E.  \v.,  152. 
Herder,  J.  G.,  17. 
Hitzig,  V..  124,  191. 
Hovey,  Alvali,  209. 
Hupfeld,  II..  108,  124. 
Hutton,  R.  H.,  103. 

Johnson,  Franklin,  8,  66,  174,  177, 
179,  188,  217. 


Kennedy,  John,  Jit;. 
Kimchi,  D.,  129. 
Erummacher,  F.  \\\,  42. 
Kuenen,  A.,  48,  216. 

Lange,  J.  P.,  89. 

Leathee,  Stanley,  114,  174,  232,  258. 

Lecky,  \V.  E.  H.,  260. 

Lnthardt,  C.  E.,  234. 

Luther,  Martin,  11,  156. 

Mendelssohn,  129. 
Meyer,  II.  A.  W.t  86,  195. 
Michaelis,  J.  D.,  190. 
Milman,  II.  II..  223. 

Milton,  John,  69. 
Moulton,  Richard  C,  19. 

Neander,  A  ,  35,  226. 

Oehler,  G.  F.,  51. 
Osgood,  Howard.  176. 

Paulus,  II.  E.  G  ,45. 

Perowne,  J.  J.  8.,  81,  39.  57,  ioi, 

263 


264 


INDEX    OF    AUTHORS    QUOTED 


126,  128,    145,    152,   167,   189,   191, 

201,  208. 
Plumptre,  E.  H.,  34. 
Pressense,  E.  de,  100,  144. 

Rawlinson,  George,  247. 
Row,  C.  A.,  85. 

Sadler,  M.  F.,  127. 
Savonarola,  G.,  82. 
Sayce,  A.  H.,  247. 
Schleiermacher,  F.  E.  D.,  45. 
Schmidt,  C,  259. 
Scott,  W.  A.,  27. 
Smith,  John  Pye,  3, 187,  189. 
Stalker,  James,  45. 


Stanley,  A.  P.,  126. 
Stearns,  O.  S.,  115. 
Storrs,  R.  S.,  260. 
Strauss,  D.  F.,  40,  45. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  239. 
Tholuck,  A.,  105,  187. 
Toy,  C.  H.,  65,  66,  176,  183,  187,  190, 
203,  240,  241. 

Uhlhorn,  G.,  259. 

Watts,  Isaac,  70,  158. 
Wellhausen,  J.,  16,  68, 145, 153. 
Westcott,  B.  F.,  93. 


INDEX   OF   SCRIPTURE 
REFERENCES 


Acts  1  :  20,  pp.  200,  201 ;  2  :  31-36,  p. 
54 ;   2  :  36,  p.  15 ;  3  :  14,  p.  95 ;  4  : 

11,  p.  219 ;  4  :  25-27,  p.  7 ;  4  :  27,  p. 
95  ;  13  :  26,  p.  90 ;  13  :  33,  pp.  7,  8, 

17. 

2  Chronicles  20,  p.  152. 
Colossians  3  :  1,  pp.  54,  63,  96. 

1  Corinthians  15,  p.  74  ;  15  :  25,  pp. 
54,58;  15:2.5-27,  pp.  63,  181. 

2  Corinthians  3  :  14,  p.  206 ;  11  :  2, 
p.  141. 

Daniel  7  :  13,  14,  p.  67. 
Deuteronomy  32  :  43,  p.  215. 

Ephesians  1  :  19,  20,  p.  96 ;  1  :  20, 
p.  54  ;  1  :  20-23,  p.  57  ;  1  :  22,  pp. 
181,  63;  4  :  8,  p.  194;  5  :  22,  etc., 
p.  141. 

Exodus  12  :  46,  p.  183. 

Ezekiel  16  :  8,  p.  139  ;  34  :  24,  p.  129. 

Genesis  3  :  15,  pp.  285,  244. 

Hebrews  1,  p.  58 ;  1  :  3,  p.  54  ;  1 :  5, 
pp.  7,  8,  9 ;  1  ;  6,  7,  pp.  131,  215  ; 
1  :  10-12,  pp.  215-217  ;  2:6-9,  p. 
180 ;  2  :  8,  p.  182  ;  2  :  12,  p.  41 ;  5, 
pp.  59-83  :  6  ;  ">.  pp.  8,  9 ;  5  :  5-10, 
p.  9  ;  6,  pp.  59-88  :  7,  pp.  59-63  ; 
8  :  l,  p.  :.l :    10:  5-7.  p.  186:   10: 

12,  18,  pp.  54,  63 ;    12  :  2,  pp.  54, 
58. 


Hosea  2  :  19,  20,  p.  139. 

Isaiah  8  :  10,  p.  167 ;  8  :  14,  p.  220; 
8  :  23,  p.  174  ;  9  :  1,  2,  p.  174 ;  53  : 
11,  p.  41;  54  :5,  p.  139;  55:3,  p. 
91 ;  62  :  4,  5,  p.  139. 

John  2  :  17,  pp.  200,  204  ;  5  :  22,  p. 
214  ;  6 :  30,  31,  pp.  208-210  ;  12  :  13, 
pp.  221,  225  ;  13  :  18,  p.  190 ;  15  : 
25,  pp.  200,  203 ;  17  :  5,  p.  8  ;  19  : 
23,  24,  p.  37  ;  19  :  28,  p.  36  ;  19  :  36, 
p.  183 ;  21 :  17,  p.  247. 

1  Kings  4  :  21 ;  10  : 1,  9,  10,  24,  p. 
104. 

Luke  1 :  32,  33,  p.  4 ;  1  :  35,  p.  95  ; 
19  :  38,  p.  221 ;  20  :  17,  p.  218  ;  23  : 
46,  p.  182. 

Malachi  4  :  2,  p.  244. 

Mark  11  :  9,  p.  221 ;    12  :  10.  11,  p. 

218;    12  :  35-37,   p.   52:    12  :  36, 

p.  63  ;  13  :  32,  p.  246 ;  14  :  62,  p. 

63. 
Matthew  11  :  27,  p.  216  ;  13  :  34,  35, 

p.  207,  208  ;  21  :  4,  5,  p.  222  ;  21  :  9, 

p.  221 ;  21  :  12-16,  p.  227  ;  21 :  42,  p. 

218;  22  :  1,  etc.,  p.  140;   23  :  39.  p. 

228 ;   25  : 1,  etc.  p.  140 ;   26  :  56,  p. 

205  :    27  :  27-30.  pp.  200,  205  ;    27  : 

30-34,  p.  205  ;    27  :  31,  p.  200 ;    27  : 

39,  p.  36  ;  27  :  43,  p.  36. 

265 


266 


INDEX    OF    SCRIPTURE    REFERENCES 


Numbers  9  :  12,  p.  183. 

1  Peter  1  :  12,  p.  54 ;  2  :  6,  7,  pp. 
219,  15  ;  2  :  8,  p.  220 ;  3  :  22,  pp. 
54,  63. 

2  Peter  1  :  4,  p.  182 ;  1  :  21,  p.  54. 
Philippians  2  :  8,  p.  247  ;    2  :  9-11, 

pp.  15,  56 ;  3  :  10,  p.  96. 
Psalm  2,  pp.  3-24,  93,  60 ;  8  :  2,  p. 
227  ;  5,  6,  pp.  129,  180 ;  16,  pp.  73- 
96  ;  22,  pp.  27-47  ;  22  :  8,  p.  36  ; 
31  :  5,  p.  182 ;  34  :  20,  p.  182  ;  40  : 
6-8,  p.  184  ;  41  :  9,  10,  pp.  190,  191  ; 
45,  pp.  123-146;  46,  pp.  149-169; 
51,  p.  185  ;  68,  p.  192 ;  69,  pp.  200- 
206  ;  69  :  21,  p.  37  ;  72,  pp.  99-119 ; 
78,  pp.  206-210 ;  87,  p.  52  ;  89,  pp. 
210-214 ;    96-98,  p.  52  ;    96  :  13,  p. 


214  ;  97  :  7,  p.  215 ,  98  :  9,  p.  214  ; 
102,  pp,  215-217 ;  109,  p.  201 ;  110, 
pp.  51-70,  19,  93  ;  113-118,  p.  225 ; 
118  :  22,  23,  pp.  217-221 ;  118  :  26, 
pp.  221-228. 

Revelation  19  :  7,  8,  9,  p.  143 ;    21  : 

2,  p.  143 ;  22  :  17,  p.  143. 
Romans  1  :  3,  p.  211 ;    1  :  4,  p.  17 ; 

4  :  24,  25,  p.  96 ;   8  :  34,  p.  63  ;   10  : 

9,  p.  96 ;    11  :  9,  10,  pp.  200,  206 ; 

15  :  3,  pp.  200,  204 ;  19,  p.  135. 

2  Samuel  7  :  16,  p.  4. 

Zechariah   9  :  9-17,  p.  174  ;    9  :  10, 
p.  222 


Date  Due 


BS1445.M4K5 

The  Messiah  in  the  Psalms, 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00028  7708 


